We describe here the current status and future prospects of sex-determination studies in the silkworm, Bombyx mori. The sex of Bombyx is strongly controlled by the presence of the W chromosome. Although several classical studies suggested that a presumptive feminizing gene (Fem) is located at a limited portion of the W chromosome, the Fem gene has not yet been cloned. Recently, the homologues o...

Nuclear polyhedrosis, that is jaundice, is distinguished among other mulberry silkworm diseases by its pathogenicity. It is a powerful viral, hereditary disease of mulberry silkworm that results in mass destruction of mulberry silkworm. Polyhedrose is spread in all silk manufacturer countries and incurs the losses to sericulture more than any infectious diseases of mulberry silkworm. Viruses wh...

A restriction fragment library which covered the entire genome of Bombyx mori nuclear polyhedrosis virus (BmNPV) was constructed using plasmid vectors. By analysis of cloned and viral DNA by double digestion with endonucleases and by hybridization techniques, a complete physical map of BmNPV was constructed for BamHI, EcoRI, HindIII, KpnI, PstI and SmaI. Five regions of repeated sequences conta...

In this study, a method for detection of an ssRNA viral pathogen that causes viral flacherie in the silkworm, Bombyx mori (L.) (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae), was used for the detection of B. mori infectious flacherie virus (BmIFV). A combination of nested and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used for detection. Although BmIFV has been reported in almost all the sericultural regio...

a bivoltine silkworm hybrid, ka x nb4d2 was treated with the juvenoid r394 (ethyl-9 cyclohexyl-3,7-dimethyl-2,4-nonadienoate) at a dose of 0.039 nl/larva at 24, 48, 72 and 96 h of 5th instar for silk yield improvement. treatment specific significant increase was observed in the cocoon and shell weight with no such marked variation in the shell percentage. notable changes were also seen in trait...

Morphological diversity of leg appendages is one of the hallmarks of developmental evolution. Limbs in insects may develop either from their embryonic prototypes or from imaginal discs harbored inside the larva. Bombyx mori (B. mori), a Lepidopteran insect, develops adult wings from larval wing imaginal discs. However, it has been debated whether the adult legs of B. mori arise from imaginal di...