Five layers, i.e. floss, upper, middle, lower and pelade, exist in cocoon shell from outer to inner portion. An attempt has been made for assessment of microstructural characteristics eri silk fiber different layers cocoons. Wide angle x- ray diffraction revealed increase crystallinity as well degree orientation decrease crystal size besides lattice spacing remains at par floss pelade layers. S...

Silkworm Bombyx mori is an important economic insect and also a tool to convert leaf protein into silk. The industrial and commercial use of silk, the historical and economic importance of production and its application in all over the world finely contributed to the silkworm promotion as a powerful laboratory model for the basic research in biology. The mulberry leaf is the only important sour...

Fundamental and applied studies of silkworms have entered the functional genomics era. Here, we report a multi-gene expression system (MGES) based on 2A self-cleaving peptide (2A), which regulates the simultaneous expression and cleavage of multiple gene targets in the silk gland of transgenic silkworms. First, a glycine-serine-glycine spacer (GSG) was found to significantly improve the cleavag...

In silkworm, prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH), directly or indirectly controls silk production and spinning activity along with juvenile hormone (JH). An effort was made to exploit the potential of PTTH by indirectly activating silk gland for increasing silk productivity using short chain synthetic analogues of PTTH. The analogy in action was also established using PTTH extracted from the silk...