We identified a novel gene encoding a Bombyx mori thymosin (BmTHY) protein from a cDNA library of silkworm pupae, which has an open reading frame (ORF) of 399 bp encoding 132 amino acids. It was found by bioinformatics that BmTHY gene consisted of three exons and two introns and BmTHY was highly homologous to thymosin betas (Tβ). BmTHY has a conserved motif LKHTET with only one amino acid diffe...

Metamorphic changes in protein profiles vis-a-vis protease activity have been studied in the fat body and haemolymph of the silkworm, Bombyx mori during pupal-adult transformation. The trends in these two biochemical constituents run counter parallel to each other and vary as a function of certain events such as the fat body remodeling, histolysis and histogenesis that characterize silkworm met...

Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrosis virus (BmNPV) is a major pathogen that threatens the growth and sustainability of the sericulture industry. Since microRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to play important roles in host-pathogen interactions, in this study we investigated the effects of BmNPV infection on silkworm microRNAs expression profile. To achieve this, we constructed and deep-sequenced two smal...

The bacterial diseases of silkworms cause significant reductions in sericulture and result in huge economic loss. This study aimed to identify and characterize a pathogen from diseased silkworm. SW7-1, a pathogenic bacterial strain, was isolated from the diseased silkworm. The strain was identified on the basis of its bacteriological properties and 16S rRNA gene sequence. The colony was round, ...

We have isolated and characterized microsatellites (simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci) from the silkworm genome. The screening of a partial genomic library by the conventional hybridization method led to the isolation of 28 microsatellites harbouring clones. The abundance of (CA)n repeats in the silkworm genome was akin to those reported in the other organisms such as honey bee, pig, and human,...

Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV) that infects the silkworm, B. mori, accounts for >50% of silk cocoon crop losses globally. We speculated that simultaneous targeting of several BmNPV essential genes in transgenic silkworm would elicit a stable defense against the virus. We introduced into the silkworm germline the vectors carrying short sequences of four essential BmNPV genes in tandem,...

The silkworm, Bombyx mori L. is a monophagous insect and consumes only mulberry leaves during larval stage of its life cycle. The performance of silkworm such as growth, reproductive potentiality and quantum and quality of cocoon production depends on nutrient composition of food, which includes both absolute and relative amounts of proteins, amino acids, lipids, carbohydrates, sterols, water, ...

A comprehensive understanding of gene function and the production of site-specific genetically modified mutants are two major goals of genetic engineering in the post-genomic era. Although site-specific recombination systems have been powerful tools for genome manipulation of many organisms, they have not yet been established for use in the manipulation of the silkworm Bombyx mori genome. In th...

For ultrathin metallic films, either supported or free-standing, the inside nanocrystalline nature significantly reduces the electron and thermal transport. Quantum mechanical reflection of electrons at the grain boundary reduces the electrical conductivity further than the thermal conductivity, leading to a Lorenz number in the order of 7.0 × 10(-8) W Ω K(-2), much higher than that of the bulk...

Sex determination is a hierarchically-regulated process with high diversity in different organisms including insects. The W chromosome-derived Fem piRNA has been identified as the primary sex determination factor in the lepidopteran insect, Bombyx mori, revealing a distinctive piRNA-mediated sex determination pathway. However, the comprehensive mechanism of silkworm sex determination is still p...