To investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the low fibroin production of the ZB silkworm strain, we used both SDS-PAGE-based and gel-free-based proteomic techniques and transcriptomic sequencing technique. Combining the data from two different proteomic techniques was preferable in the characterization of the differences between the ZB silkworm strain and the original Lan10 silkworm strain. The correlation analysis showed that the individual protein and transcript were not corresponded well, however, the differentially changed proteins and transcripts showed similar regulated direction in function at the pathway level. In the ZB strain, numerous ribosomal proteins and transcripts were down-regulated, along with the transcripts of translational related elongation factors and genes of important components of fibroin. The proteasome pathway was significantly enhanced in the ZB strain, indicating that protein degradation began on the third day of fifth instar when fibroin would have been produced in the Lan10 strain normally and plentifully. From proteome and transcriptome levels of the ZB strain, the energy-metabolism-related pathways, oxidative phosphorylation, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, and citrate cycle were enhanced, suggesting that the energy metabolism was vigorous in the ZB strain, while the silk production was low. This may due to the inefficient energy employment in fibroin synthesis in the ZB strain. These results suggest that the reason for the decreasing of the silk production might be related to the decreased ability of fibroin synthesis, the degradation of proteins, and the inefficiency of the energy exploiting.

BackgroundThe growth and development of the posterior silk gland and the biosynthesis of the silk core protein at the fifth larval instar stage of Bombyx mori are of paramount importance for silk production.ResultsHere, aided by next-generation sequencing and microarry assay, we profile 1,229 microRNAs (miRNAs), including 728 novel miRNAs and 110 miRNA/miRNA* duplexes, of the posterior silk gland at the fifth larval instar. Target gene prediction yields 14,222 unique target genes from 1,195 miRNAs. Functional categorization classifies the targets into complex pathways that include both cellular and metabolic processes, especially protein synthesis and processing.ConclusionThe enrichment of target genes in the ribosome-related pathway indicates that miRNAs may directly regulate translation. Our findings pave a way for further functional elucidation of these miRNAs and their targets in silk production.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2164-15-410) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Spider dragline silk is a remarkable material that shows excellent mechanical properties, diverse applications, biocompatibility and biodegradability. Transgenic silkworm technology was used to obtain four types of chimeric silkworm/spider (termed composite) silk fibres, including different lengths of recombinant Major ampullate Spidroin1 (re-MaSp1) or recombinant Major ampullate Spidroin2 (re-MaSp2) from the black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus. The results showed that the overall mechanical properties of composite silk fibres improved as the re-MaSp1 chain length increased, and there were significant linear relationships between the mechanical properties and the re-MaSp1 chain length (p < 0.01). Additionally, a stronger tensile strength was observed for the composite silk fibres that included re-MaSp1, which only contained one type of repetitive motif, (GA)n/An, to provide tensile strength, compared with the silk fibres that includedre-MaSp2, which has the same protein chain length as re-MaSp1 but contains multiple types of repetitive motifs, GPGXX and (GA)n/An. Therefore, the results indicated that the nature of various repetitive motifs in the primary structure played an important role in imparting excellent mechanical properties to the protein-based silk fibres. A silk protein with a single type of repetitive motif and sufficiently long chains was determined to be an additional indispensable factor. Thus, this study forms a foundation for designing and optimizing the structure of re-silk protein using a heterologous expression system.

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Silkworm is used as a model organism to analyze two standard complex traits, which are high and low silk yields. To understand the molecular mechanisms of silk production, the posterior silk glands aged to the third day of the fifth instar were analyzed from the ZB strain with low silk production and from the control strain Lan10. Using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) quantitative shotgun proteomics and RNA-sequencing-based transcriptomics, 139 proteins and 630 transcripts were identified as novel in the ZB strain compared with the Lan10 strain, indicating that these results significantly expand the coverage of proteins and transcripts of the posterior silk glands in the silkworm. Of the 89 differently changed proteins, 23 were increased, and 66 were decreased. Of the 788 transcripts, 779 were upregulated, and 9 were downregulated. These results confirm that decreased energy utilization/protein translation and enhanced protein degradation are the key factors in lower silk production. Moreover, this study provides novel insight into the molecular changes that may result in lower silk production, namely, a combination of impaired transcription activity, missed protein folding/transport, and lowered yields of the main components of fibroin, along with weakened growth/development of the posterior silk gland.