Transcriptomic analysis of the bagworm moth silk gland reveals a number of silk genes conserved within Lepidoptera.

Autor: Tsubota T; Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Transgenic Silkworm Research Unit, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan., Yoshioka T; Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Silk Materials Research Unit, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan., Jouraku A; Insect Genome Research and Engineering Unit, Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan., Suzuki TK; Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Transgenic Silkworm Research Unit, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan., Yonemura N; Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Transgenic Silkworm Research Unit, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan., Yukuhiro K; Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Silk Materials Research Unit, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan., Kameda T; Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Silk Materials Research Unit, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan., Sezutsu H; Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Transgenic Silkworm Research Unit, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Insect science [Insect Sci] 2021 Aug; Vol. 28 (4), pp. 885-900. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Jul 25.
DOI: 10.1111/1744-7917.12846
Abstrakt: Lepidopteran insects produce cocoons with unique properties. The cocoons are made of silk produced in the larval tissue silk gland and our understanding of the silk genes is still very limited. Here, we investigated silk genes in the bagworm moth Eumeta variegata, a species that has recently been found to produce extraordinarily strong and tough silk. Using short-read transcriptomic analysis, we identified a partial sequence of the fibroin heavy chain gene and its product was found to have a C-terminal structure that is conserved within nonsaturniid species. This is in accordance with the presence of fibroin light chain/fibrohexamerin genes and it is suggested that the bagworm moth is producing silk composed of fibroin ternary complex. This indicates that the fibroin structure has been evolutionarily conserved longer than previously thought. Other than fibroins we identified candidates for sericin genes, expressed strongly in the middle region of the silk gland and encoding serine-rich proteins, and other silk genes, that are structurally conserved with other lepidopteran homologues. The bagworm moth is thus considered to be producing conventional lepidopteran type of silk. We further found a number of genes expressed in a specific region of the silk gland and some genes showed conserved expression with Bombyx mori counterparts. This is the first study allowing comprehensive silk gene identification and expression analysis in the lepidopteran Psychidae family and should contribute to the understanding of silk gene evolution as well as to the development of novel types of silk.
(© 2020 Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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