OUP accepted manuscript

Abstract

As an important economic insect, silkworm Bombyx mori (L.) (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae) has numerous advantages in life science, such as low breeding cost, large progeny size, short generation time, and clear genetic background. Additionally, there are rich genetic resources associated with silkworms. The completion of the silkworm genome has further accelerated it to be a modern model organism in life science. Genomic studies showed that some silkworm genes are highly homologous to certain genes related to human hereditary disease and, therefore, are a candidate model for studying human disease. In this article, we provided a review of silkworm as an important model in various research areas, including human disease, screening of antimicrobial agents, environmental safety monitoring, and antitumor studies. In addition, the application potentiality of silkworm model in life sciences was discussed.

High-Quality de novo Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly of a Single Bombyx mori With BmNPV Resistance by a Combination of PacBio Long-Read Sequencing, Illumina Short-Read Sequencing, and Hi-C Sequencing

“…Corresponding to the phylogenetic analysis performed with the mcmctree program of the PAML package 19 (parameters: rootage, 1,000; clock, 3; alpha, 0.603820) ( Yang, 1997 ), Figure 3A shows that Bmj has a very close relationship to Bmo and phylogenetically diverged from the common ancestor ∼3 million years ago. However, the history of human breeding is up to 5,000 years long ( Tabunoki et al, 2016 ; Meng et al, 2017 ), and the best explanation is manual intervention in sericulture, which increases their divergence. By using the phylogenetic analysis as a supplement, the above-mentioned 650 single-copy gene families were subjected to internal alignment with MUSCLE, 20 and then the aligned results were merged to form a super alignment matrix ( Edgar, 2004a , b ).…”

“…With advances of biotechnology, B. mori has been treated as an important bioreactor for producing recombinant protein ( Tomita et al, 2000 , 2003 ). Moreover, because of their intermediate genome size, short life cycle, affordability, and ability to be easily used for drug screening, B. mori is a perfect model organism for scientific discovery, especially for lepidopterans, and is useful for economic research ( Kaito et al, 2002 ; International Silkworm Genome, 2008 ; Tabunoki et al, 2016 ; Meng et al, 2017 ). To maintain the consistency of biological background among different laboratories, the B. mori strains of Dazao and p50T were first separately sequenced and annotated in China and Japan by whole-genome shotgun sequencing in 2004, and the genome sequence has been updated every few years, which is considered the gold standard ( Mita et al, 2004 ; Xia et al, 2004 ; Meng et al, 2017 ; Kawamoto et al, 2019 ).…”

Polysaccharides of a fermented food, natto, suppress sucrose-induced hyperglycemia in an <i>in vivo</i> evaluation system and inhibit glucose uptake by human intestinal cells

“…Experiments using the silkworm evaluation system revealed that the viscous component of natto has a suppressive effect against sucrose-and glucose-induced hyperglycemia. Silkworms are useful for large-scale in vivo evaluation because they are inexpensive and can be reared in large groups (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). We reported the discovery of several active substances that suppress postprandial hyperglycemia using the silkworm evaluation system (4,11,28).…”

Deep Sequencing Reveals the Comprehensive CRISPR-Cas9 Editing Spectrum in Bombyx mori

“…Bombyx mori is an economically important invertebrate and a research model for Lepidoptera insects. 15 Genome-editing tools, including ZFN, TALEN, CRISPR-Cas9, BE3, and genomewide CRISPR screening, have been applied in B. mori. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Increasing studies and applications of genome editing technologies in B. mori are being performed and have greatly accelerated the silkworm biology and sericulture industry.…”