the effect of fungicides on silkworm larvae was analyzed with regard to the fact that these beneficial insects are usually affected by fungicides, daily feeding on 1 and 2g/liter of carbendazim, a systemic fungicide, did not have significant effects on larval and pupal mortality. however the weight of the treated larvae showed considerable weight decrease up to 37% weight.. all the economic tra...

Beyond the commonly known proteins built silk fibres—fibroin and sericin, there are almost 300 bioactive proteins in the silkworm haemolymph. The aim of this work was to present bioactive compounds obtained from the silk fibre and isolated from the body of this insect, which may be used in medical and pharmacological applications. The most important are bioactive proteins. However, the juvenile...

The silkworm infection assay is a useful method for directly evaluating the in vivo therapeutic effects of drug candidates. In the present study, 3 known trichothecenes, trichodermin, epiisororidin E, and verrucarin A, were evaluated as antifungal agents in the silkworm-Candida albicans assay. Trichodermin and epiisororidin E yielded effective therapeutic effects, while verrucarin A exhibited n...

Piwi proteins are part of a superfamily of Argonaute proteins, which are one of the core components of the RNA silencing pathway in many eukaryotes. Piwi proteins are thought to repress the transposon expression both transcriptionally and post-transcriptionally. Recently, Drosophila melanogaster Piwi was recently reported to associate with chromatin and to interact directly with the Heterochrom...

Bombyx mori cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus (BmCPV) is one of the most important pathogens of silkworm. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been demonstrated to play key roles in regulating host-pathogen interaction. However, there are limited reports on the miRNAs expression profiles during insect pathogen challenges. In this study, four small RNA libraries from BmCPV-infected midgut of silkworm at 72 h po...

The impact of PGF2? on total proteins, free amino acids and the amino transferases in the gonads of silkworm, Bombyx mori L. were investigated in the present experiment. The effect of PGF2? resulted in increase in the total protein and free amino acid contents in the gonads of silkworm larvae indicating improved structural and dynamic levels of organization. The enhanced activity levels of amin...

The genetic variation and diversity among fifty-eight polyvoltine silkworm genotypes was estimated by using ten economic traits. The results revealed that the single shell weight showed higher genetic variation such as PCV% (17.20%), GCV% (12.93%), and heritability (56.5%) followed by single cocoon weight, shell ratio and matured larval weight. The D2 (Mahalonobis? distance) statistics reveal...

exploitation of wild relatives of crop plants to a large extent depends on the efficient use of germplasm resources available in natural habitat and the centre of diversity. the mulberry, sole food for silkworm is cultivated for the production and development of silkworm industry. four species of mulberry viz., m. indica l., m. alba l., m. laevigata wall., and m. serrata roxb., are reported in ...

New antimicrobials with novel mechanisms need to be developed to combat antimicrobial-resistant pathogenic bacteria. The current authors recently reported discovery of a new antibiotic named "Lysocin E". Lysocin E was identified using a silkworm model of bacterial infection. The current review discusses the advantages of using a silkworm model of bacterial infection to identify and develop ther...

In 1989, indole alkaloid okaramines isolated from the fermentation products of Penicillium simplicissimum were shown to be insecticidal, yet the mechanism of their toxicity to insects remains unknown. We therefore examined the action of okaramine B on silkworm larval neurons using patch-clamp electrophysiology. Okaramine B induced inward currents which reversed close to the chloride equilibrium...