Silkworm has been proposed recently as an animal model for the study of therapeutic effects of drug candidates. Little is known regarding the factors influencing the physiology of the silkworm, and this might become the major effect of the therapeutic result interpretation. In the present study, the effect of a diet of mulberry leaves as compared to an artificial diet on Thai silkworm growth de...

Muga silkworms, Antheraea assamensis (Helfer) (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) is a semi-domesticated sericigenous insect that produces the costliest golden colored exquisite silk. The silkworm endemic to Assam and adjoining areas of northeastern India. This multivoltine feeds on variety perennial food plants. However, less known about plants other than primary ones, namely Persea bombycina Kost. Lit...

As widely used pesticides, organophosphate, pyrethroid, and neonicotinoid insecticides have different modes of action. In the present study, we evaluated individual and joint acute toxicities of two organophosphates, two pyrethroids, and two neonicotinoids against the second-instar silkworm by feeding silkworm with the insecticide-treated mulberry leaves. The 96-h lethal concentration 50 (LC(50...

PURPOSE Many researchers are trying to solve the metabolic syndrome by utilizing a variety of nutritional control and exercise. Of those, silkworm pupae peptides are known to inhibit the synthesis of fat. Therefore, we examine the effect of fat metabolism by supplying silkworm pupae (SP) for 5-week in swim-trained rats. METHODS Animals were divided into four groups as a group (n = 32) fed a n...

This study was conducted out to select a silkworm variety suitable for synnemata production of Isaria tenuipes. Four kinds of the mulberry silkworm varieties, Bombyx mori, were hybridized using a Japanese parental line and a Chinese parental line, and used to test for synemata formation in I. tenuipes. The larval period of normal silkworms was 22 hr longer than the silkworms inoculated with thi...

Abstract Silkworm genebanks assume paramount importance as the reservoirs of biodiversity and source of alleles that can be easily retrieved for genetic enhancement of popular breeds. More than 4000 Bombyx mori L (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae) strains are currently available and these strains are maintained through continuous sibling mating. This repeated sibling mating makes the populations of each...

Sucrose is a major sweetener added to various foods and beverages. Excessive intake of sucrose leads to increases in blood glucose levels, which can result in the development and exacerbation of lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes. In this study, we established an in vivo evaluation system using silkworms to explore substances that suppress the increase in blood glucose leve...

Infection of Neospora caninum causes abortion in cattle, which has a serious worldwide impact on the economic performance of the dairy and beef industries. Now, inexpensive and efficacious vaccines are required to protect cattle from neosporosis in livestock industry. In this study, N. caninum surface antigen 1 (SAG1) and SAG1-related sequence 2 (SRS2) were expressed in hemolymph of silkworm la...

The overall development of silkworm larvae depends on getting the required food which can be easily digested and assimilated in the body tissues properly for the silk synthesis. Keeping this in view, an attempt has been made to increase the growth of young silkworm Bombyx mori. This is ensured through supplementation of food additives, intern biochemical constituents of worm. The results of the...

In this study, we developed a structure-based approach to identify Helitrons in four lepidopterans and systematically analysed Helitrons in the silkworm genome. We found that the content of Helitrons varied greatly among genomes. The silkworm genome harboured 67,555 Helitron-related sequences that could be classified into 21 families and accounted for ≈ 4.23% of the genome. Thirteen of the fami...