Expression analysis of decapentaplegic gene in the silkworm,Bombyx mori

The decapentaplegic (dpp) gene in Drosophila is involved in multiple developmental processes, and is a highly conserved among various eukaryotic species, including Bombyx mori. Although the gene has well been characterized in Drosophila species the B. mori dpp has not yet been functionally analyzed. In this study, we analyzed the expression pattern of B. mori dpp in 12 different developmental days/stages (7 days for fifth instar larvae, 2 days for spinning stage, 2 days for pupal stages, and 1 day for adults) in both male and female silkworms using quantitative real‐time RT‐PCR (qRT‐PCR). mRNA expression of B. mori dpp was much higher in the female larvae up to the mid‐stage of the fifth instar compared with the corresponding male larvae. Similarly, dpp expression also was much higher in females during the eclosion period than that in the corresponding male pupae. During the embryonic stage, the expression level of the dpp gene was much higher compared to that of adult stage in both male and female silkworms. These results suggest that the B. mori dpp gene plays multiple roles in the developmental of B. mori.     

家蚕核型多角体病毒lef-11基因RNA干扰策略的优化

【目的】家蚕核型多角体病毒(Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus,BmNPV)lef-11基因作为杆状病毒高度保守的晚期表达因子之一,对病毒晚期基因的表达极其重要。因此对lef-11基因进行有效RNA干扰将提高宿主细胞对BmNPV的抗性。【方法】本文基于经典的sh-RNA-loop骨架及家蚕内源性的miRNA骨架,构建以BmNPV lef-11基因为靶标的干扰载体pIZ-shRNA1、pIZ-shRNA2和pIZ-Ds RedamiR279;分别构建基于A4、IE1、IE1-295、IE2、IE2-339、hr3A4和hsp70启动子驱动的干扰载体,用以评价不同启动子驱动的干扰载体的抗病毒效果,并对干扰载体进行优化。【结果】首先,本文通过比较miRNA-based和shRNA-based RNAi载体对同一靶基因同一位点的干扰效率,发现pIZ-Ds Red-amiR279对BmNPV lef11基因的干扰效率超过90%,远优于shRNA-based RNAi载体的干扰效果;其次,通过对干扰载体进行优化,发现IE1启动子的效果最优,由其驱动的pIZ-Ds Red-milef11干扰载体也是本研究中的最优干扰载体,对病毒的增殖抑制效果最为明显。【结论】对目的基因的干扰效果并非启动子的活性越高、miRNA积累得越多就越好,只有综合考虑干扰片段的选择、启动子的活性以及靶基因自身的功能等多方面的因素,才能提高干扰效率,达到干扰目的。     

家蚕吡哆醛激酶基因干扰降低转氨酶基因的转录表达

【目的】维生素B₆在氨基酸代谢中是多种酶的辅酶,维持氨基酸代谢的正常运行。磷酸吡哆醛（pyridoxal-5′-phosphate, PLP）是维生素B₆的主要辅酶形式,吡哆醛激酶（pyridoxal kinase, PLK）是PLP的重要生成酶,本研究试图明确PLK基因与PLP依赖酶之间转录水平的调节关系。【方法】本研究采用RNA干扰（RNA interference, RNAi）方法对家蚕 Bombyx mori 的PLK基因进行干扰,通过体外合成PLK基因的3个干扰片段（siRNA1, siRNA2和siRNA3）,将siRNA从体腔注入5龄第3天的家蚕幼虫体内诱导RNAi。利用荧光定量PCR测定不同干扰片段、不同时间点及不同组织中PLK基因表达量的变化;并测定家蚕体内磷酸丝氨酸转氨酶（phosphoserine aminotransferase, SerB）和天门冬氨酸氨基转移酶（asparate aminotransferase, AST）基因的表达量。【结果】注射干扰片段后48 h干扰效果达到最佳。3个干扰片段干扰效果从高到低依次为siRNA1, siRNA2和siRNA3。RNAi效果最好的是中肠组织,其PLK基因的相对表达量下降了55%。RNA干扰PLK基因后,后部丝腺中SerB和AST基因相对表达量分别下降了90%和29%。【结论】本研究通过RNAi实现了家蚕PLK基因干扰,并进一步证明了家蚕PLK基因和SerB基因及AST基因存在联动调节关系。     

细菌表达dsRNA介导的家蚕FTZ-F1基因的RNA干扰

为探索细菌表达目标基因dsRNA介导的RNAi技术是否在家蚕Bombyx mori可行, 本研究引入了在其他物种中广泛应用的细菌表达dsRNA的RNAi系统: HT115细菌株和L4440质粒。利用L4440载体两端含有T7启动子的特点, 设计并构建了针对家蚕核受体FTZ-F1基因的RNA干扰（RNA interference）载体, 将构建好的质粒转入大肠杆菌Escherichia coli HT115, 在IPTG诱导下成功获得目标基因对应双链RNA（dsRNA）。 结果显示: 通过对5龄第7天家蚕幼虫注射IPTG诱导后提取的FTZ F1基因对应的dsRNA 25 μg, 85%的蛹变态发育过程明显延迟, 不能实现幼虫到蛹的形态完全转变。荧光定量PCR分析显示目标基因的表达得到了特异的抑制。实验结果初步表明, 通过细菌表达目标基因dsRNA介导的RNAi策略, 以其经济、高效的特点, 具有广泛应用于家蚕基因功能研究中的潜力。     

家蚕小热激蛋白家族成员Hsp23.7基因的克隆与分析

Hsp23.7基因是小热激蛋白家族的成员,本文研究了家蚕BombyxmoriL.的Hsp23.7基因,并对其进行了原核表达,获得了相应分子量的表达产物。推导的开放阅读框编码210个氨基酸,分子量为23.7ku,等电点为5.17。同时,利用实时定量PCR技术对Hsp23.7基因在家蚕不同组织的表达谱进行了鉴定。结果显示Hsp23.7基因在5龄幼虫时期的各组织中都有表达,在卵巢中表达量最高,达到3.64×107拷贝数/μg,其次在脂肪体,翅原基,马氏管中表达量也较高,在血淋巴中表达量最低,仅为7.11×103拷贝数/μg。     

Functional analysis of a survivin-like gene in Bombyx mori

The survivin (svv) gene is a newly discovered member of the inhibitors of apoptosis gene family. In recent years, svv has been confirmed to have an anti-apoptosis function and to play a critical role in cell division. We identified a survivin-like gene in the silkworm, Bombyx mori (Bm-svv). In this study, to gain insight into its function, a baculovirus expression system was used to express the Bm-svv gene in insect cell lines. The recombinant viruses were then used as a vector to transform insect cells, and cell activity was determined using the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), which is usually employed for detecting mammalian cell number. The results indicated that the Bm-svv gene plays a role in the cell growth arrest or apoptosis induced by viruses. Furthermore, the CCK-8 kit is effective in determining the activity of insect cells.     

转座子介导的多角体基因表达及提高病毒粒子的感染效率

现行的杆状病毒表达外源基因的方法是将外源基因取代病毒中的多角体基因,因而得到的重组杆状病毒感染活体时不能经口感染,只能进行针刺注射,效率低且易引起活体感染其他疾病。将家蚕核型多角体病毒(Bombyx mor inucleopolyhedrovirus,BmNPV)中的多角体基因(polyhedrin,poly)及其启动子片段克隆到转座子载体pigA3GFP中,将其与辅助质粒pHA3PIG利用脂质体介导法导入家蚕细胞中,经过多次筛选获得稳定的转基因家蚕细胞。之后先将BmPAK6(含LacZ)及BmGFP(含GFP)重组病毒分别感染转基因细胞,再将得到的重组病毒经口感染5龄家蚕幼虫。结果显示,重组杆状病毒可以经口感染家蚕幼虫。这些研究表明来自于转基因家蚕细胞的poly基因表达产物可以提高重组杆状病毒经口感染家蚕率,为解决杆状病毒表达系统中重组病毒不能经口感染家蚕幼虫的问题提供新思路。     

Comparative transcriptome analysis of wing discs from Bombyx mori and Bombyx mandarina

The insect wing is developed from the wing imaginal disc which is designed from the embryonic ectoderm. To get insight into gene expression profiles in wing discs of Bombyx mori during metamorphosis, we compared the gene expression in the wing between B. mori and B. mandarina moth through RNA-seq. Out of total valid reads identified from the 5th day of 5th instar larvae of silkworm (L5), 7th day of pupae (P7), 1st day of moth (M1) and 1st day of wild silkworm moth (WM1), 20,092,004, 29,251,647, 24,654,695 and 19,753,089 reads were mapped to the mRNA reference sequences of silkworm, respectively. 9229, 7048, 9268 and 6701 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were respectively recorded in P7 vs L5, M1 vs P7, M1 vs L5 and WM1 vs M1. Further, the peroxisome, ribosome, endocytosis and oxidative phosphorylation pathways were significantly regulated in the metamorphosis of the silkworm. Our study identified 16 orthologous genes with a positive selection from M1, which might be subjected to artificial selection in the domestication of B. mori and would play vital roles in the flight of B. mandarina.     

Proteomics analysis of adult testis from Bombyx mori

The development of the testis involves a large number of tissue‐specific proteins, possibly because the sperms in it are the most divergent of all cell types. In this study, LC‐MS/MS was employed to investigate the protein compositions of the adult testis of silkworm. A total of 14 431 peptides were identified in the adult testis of Bombyx mori, which were matched to 2292 proteins. Thirty‐two HSPs constitute a group of most abundant proteins in the adult testis, suggesting that they are critical for the development, differentiation, and survival of germ cells. Other proteins in this analysis were also involved in testis‐specific processes mainly including sperm motility, meiosis, germ cell development, and spermatogenesis. The data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD000909 ( http://proteomecentral.proteomexchange.org/dataset/PXD000909 ).     

Structure and expression analysis of the cecropin-E gene from the silkworm, Bombyx mori

Cecropins belong to the antibacterial peptides family and are induced after injection of bacteria or their cell-wall components. By silkworm cDNA microarray analysis, a novel type of Cecropin family gene was identified as a cDNA up-regulated in early embryo, 1 day after oviposition. The cDNA isolated was 394 bp with 198 ORF translating 65 amino acids, encoding BmCecropin-E (BmCec-E). Using Southern hybridization and genome search analysis, the number of BmCec-E gene was estimated to be at least two per haploid, which consisted of two exons, as in other Cecropin family members. BmCec-E mRNA was expressed transiently 1 day after egg-laying (AEL, germ-band formation stage), and was specifically expressed in the degenerating intestine during the pre-pupal and pupal stages, unlike other Cecropin family genes. Immune challenge analysis showed that BmCec-E gene expression was more strongly induced by Escherichia coli (gram-negative) than by Micrococus luteus (gram-positive), and not by virus injection. By bacterial challenge, expression of BmCec-E mRNA was induced 12 h after injection, and was maintained for 24 h. Expression of BmCec-E after immune challenge was observed strongly in excretory organs, such as hindgut and malphigian, slightly in fat body, skin, and midgut.     

Translation of RNA from Eggs During Post-Diapause Development of Bombyx mori

Eggs of Bombyx mori are aroused from diapause by long-term chilling and develop when transferred to 25°C. During the first 20 hr of post-diapause development, the polysome content and the presumed rate of protein synthesis increase about 3-fold, while the ribosome content and the total RNA content increase only 1.1-fold. In this study, total RNAs were extracted from chilled eggs (termed 0 hr of development), and post-diapause eggs at 10 and 20 hr of development. The RNAs were purified further by high pressure liquid chromatography to remove RNA-like oligonucleotides. On translation in a protein-synthesizing system derived from wheat germ with a subsaturating amount of RNA, no difference was found in the relative amounts of translatable mRNA activity at 10 and 20 hr of development from that at 0 hr. Moreover, the translation products of the different RNA preparations in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate system appeared very similar when separated by gel electrophoresis and located by fluorography. These facts suggest that protein synthesis in early post-diapause development is controlled at a translational level.     

创建可视化的家蚕杆状病毒表达系统表达家蚕二分浓核病毒非结构蛋白NS1

重组杆状病毒感染昆虫细胞是表达外源蛋白常用的一种方法。为有效鉴定转染的细胞中是否产生了重组病毒粒子,对质粒pFastBacI进行改造,构建了极早期基因ie1启动子控制的绿色荧光蛋白egfp基因表达盒,以及多角体基因启动子控制的外源DNA的一个通用型双表达载体;通过酶切、连接的方式,将家蚕二分浓核病毒ns1基因连接到多角体启动子下游;在转座酶的介导下,该供体质粒上部分序列可转座到穿梭载体Bm-Bacmid上,进而构建可同时表达egfp和ns1基因的重组杆粒。将构建的该重组杆粒DNA转染BmN细胞,通过观察可视化的绿色荧光信号,可迅速判定转染后的细胞中重组病毒粒子产生的情况,收集转染后的细胞培养上清,将其感染BmN细胞,对感染4 d后的细胞总蛋白进行Western blotting分析,结果表明能杂交到一条36 kDa大小的特异蛋白,表明NS1蛋白成功获得了表达,进而为深入研究ns1基因的功能奠定了基础。     

剪接因子SQD在家蚕中的表达定位与功能分析

BmSQD(Bombyx mori SQUID)是一种具有RRM结构域(RNA recognition motif, RRM)的核内不均一核糖核蛋白(heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins, hnRNPs)。为探究SQD在家蚕中的表达定位和功能,在生物信息学分析和克隆表达与抗体制备的基础上,本文通过对变态发育和胚胎发育时期部分组织的BmSQD蛋白水平和mRNA水平表达量进行分析,辅以组织细胞定位的免疫组化分析,对SQD蛋白的基本特性和在家蚕Bombyx mori中的表达定位及功能进行了研究。生物信息学分析显示,昆虫中的SQD同源基因相似性高,尤其是SQD蛋白二级结构的α螺旋和β折叠按照β1-α1-β2-β3-α2-β4的空间顺序组合形成的两个RRM结构域在昆虫中高度保守;BmSQD是一种亲水性且具有特定空间结构的hnRNPs蛋白,存在潜在的磷酸化位点;BmSQD在家蚕中的大部分组织中都有表达,尤其在卵巢与精巢等重要组织,且主要在家蚕发育的重要时期如胚胎发育与变态发育时期高表达,主要定位在细胞核内,对基因转录后调节起到剪接调控作用。本文为研究SQ...     

Serial analysis of gene expression in the silkworm, Bombyx mori

The silkworm Bombyx mori is one of the most economically important insects and serves as a model for Lepidoptera insects. We used serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) to derive profiles of expressed genes during the developmental life cycle of the silkworm and to create a reference for understanding silkworm metamorphosis. We generated four SAGE libraries, one from each of the four developmental stages of the silkworm. In total we obtained 257,964 SAGE tags, of which 39,485 were unique tags. Sorted by copy number, 14.1% of the unique tags were detected at a median to high level (five or more copies), 24.2% at lower levels (two to four copies), and 61.7% as single copies. Using a basic local alignment search tool on the EST database, 35% of the tags matched known silkworm expressed sequence tags. SAGE demonstrated that a number of the genes were up- or down-regulated during the four developmental phases of the egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Furthermore, we found that the generation of longer cDNA fragments from SAGE tags constituted the most efficient method of gene identification, which facilitated the analysis of a large number of unknown genes.     

家蚕Caspase家族基因 BmCaspase-X 的克隆与功能分析

【目的】本研究旨在克隆获得家蚕 Bombyx mori Caspase家族基因,并通过RNAi技术初步分析其在家蚕细胞水平细胞凋亡中的功能。【方法】 用cDNA末端快速扩增方法（rapid amplification of cDNA ends, RACE）克隆家蚕Caspase家族一个新基因,用RNAi和流式细胞术初步分析该基因在家蚕细胞凋亡中的功能。【结果】将克隆获得的家蚕Caspase家族基因命名为 BmCaspase-X,其全长为2 105 bp,开放阅读框长为1 494 bp,编码497 aa,分子量为57.8 kDa,等电点为5.29。BmCaspase-X含有Caspase特有的结构位点。系统进化分析表明,BmCaspase-X与家蚕ICE同其他昆虫Caspase-4同源物先聚在一起,再与具有长前体结构域的昆虫其他因子聚为一类。RNAi初步结果显示该基因干扰后没有出现明显的细胞凋亡。【结论】BmCaspase-X具有典型Caspase特征,属于Caspase家族成员。目前RNAi实验结果表明 BmCaspase-X 未能引起家蚕细胞凋亡的改变。本文为进一步研究该基因的功能奠定基础。