4.6 Article

Mutations in a β-group of solute carrier gene are responsible for egg and eye coloration of the brown egg 4 (b-4) mutant in the silkworm, Bombyx mori

Journal

INSECT BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
Volume 137, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ibmb.2021.103624

Keywords

Bombyx mori; Ommochrome; CRISPR; Cas9; Solute carrier transporter

Funding

  1. JSPS KAKENHI [17H05047, 20H02997, 26850220, JP20J22954]
  2. Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan
  3. Ibaraki University
  4. Cooperative Research Grant of the Genome Research for BioResource, NODAI Genome Research Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture
  5. Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [26850220, 20H02997, 17H05047] Funding Source: KAKEN

Ask authors/readers for more resources

The researchers identified a gene called Bmmah in silkworm, the knockout of which results in reddish-brown color in eggs and adult compound eyes. Experimental evidence confirmed that Bmmah is responsible for the b-4 phenotype.
The brown egg 4 (b-4) is a recessive mutant in the silkworm (Bombyx mori), whose egg and adult compound eyes exhibit a reddish-brown color instead of normal purple and black, respectively. By double digest restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (ddRAD-seq) analysis, we narrowed down a region linked to the b-4 phenotype to approximately 1.1 Mb that contains 69 predicted gene models. RNA-seq analysis in a b-4 strain indicated that one of the candidate genes had a different transcription start site, which generates a short open reading frame. We also found that exon skipping was induced in the same gene due to an insertion of a transposable element in other two b-4 mutant strains. This gene encoded a putative amino acid transporter that belongs to the beta-group of solute carrier (SLC) family and is orthologous to Drosophila eye color mutant gene, mahogany (mah). Accordingly, we named this gene Bmmah. We performed CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene knockout targeting Bmmah. Several adult moths in generation 0 (G0) had totally or partially reddish-brown compound eyes. We also established three Bmmah knockout strains, all of which exhibit reddish-brown eggs and adult compound eyes. Furthermore, eggs from complementation crosses between the b-4 mutants and the Bmmah knockout mutants also exhibited reddish-brown color, which was similar to the b-4 mutant eggs, indicating that Bmmah is responsible for the b-4 phenotypes.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.6
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available