• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.119-124
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• 2005

To determine the level of heterosis, higher cocoon shell weight multivoltine congenic lines (Con. L) and bivoltine syngenic lines (Syn. L) of silkworm were used for crosses. First filial generations $(F_1s)$ expressed heterobeltiotic genetic interaction at significant magnitude (p < 0.01) for single cocoon shell weight (SCSW). The other linked characters viz., single cocoon weight (SCW) and yield by weight per 10, 000 larvae were also significantly higher (p < 0.01) than the better parental lines. All the hybrids showed significant improvement for these aforesaid characters over standard heterosis (Standard check). The reeling parameters viz., filament length, raw silk, neatness, cohesionstrokes etc, also showed improvement among the hybrids than check in congenial environment. Overall results suggested that the cross between congenic and syngenic lines provide better heterosis with good quality silk than conventional hybrids and may be used for commercial exploitation.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 2017

We constructed the fibroin H-chain expression system to produce enhanced cyan fluorescent proteins (ECFP) in transgenic silkworm cocoon. Fluorescent cocoon could be made by fusing ECFP cDNA to the heavy chain gene and injecting it into a silkworm. The ECFP fusion protein, each with N- and C-terminal sequences of the fibroin H-chain, was designed to be secreted into the lumen of the posterior silk glands. The expression of the ECFP/H-chain fusion gene was regulated by the fibroin H-chain promoter. The use of the 3xP3-driven EGFP cDNA as a marker allowed us to rapidly distinguish transgenic silkworms. The EGFP fluorescence became visible in the ocelli and in the central and peripheral nervous system on the seventh day of embryonic development. A mixture of the donor and helper vector was micro-injected into 1,020 Kumokjam, bivoltin silkworm eggs. We obtained 6 broods. The cocoon was displayed strong blue fluorescence, proving that the fusion protein was present in the cocoon. Accordingly, we suggest that the ECFP fluorescence silk will enable the production of novel biomaterial based on the transgenic silk.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.69-73
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• 2001

The effect of topical application 100,300 and 500 $\mu$g/ ml with Mineral Salts of magnesium sulphate and potassium nitrate on economic parameters was ana- lyzed following treatment of last larval stadium. The treated larvae showed significantly decreased larval weight and silk gland weight in all the treated groups along with other decreased Iarval, cocoon and adult parameters. The female cocoon weight was significantly decreased in all the treated groups with decreased female cocoon shell weight and male cocoon weight at 300 and 500$\mu$g/ml respectively. The length and weight of filament was significantly decreased at 300 and 500 $\mu$g/ml respectively and denier at 500 $\mu$g/ ml. The fecundity decreased significantly in 300 and 500 $\mu$g/ml treated groups when compared with the corresponding parameters of the carrier control.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.235-243
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• 1995

Recently, the cocoon production is reducing very steeply in Japan. The main reason for this cocoon reduction is due to high labor cost and the production expense is apt to rise year by year. Accordingly, the improvement of cocoon productivity by retrenchment of the production expense is intensively required in my country. Therefore, the silkworm rearing on the artificial diet is largely expected as the innovation techniques of sericulture. Since rearing of the silkworm on artificial diets has first been achieved in 1960, and the silkworm larvae were reared throughout all the instars on artificial diets(Fukuda et al., 1960, Ito & Tanaka, 1960). The artificial diets used at this time contained 50% or more of dried, pulverized mulberyy leaves as one of the main ingredients, and the composition was rather simple. When reared on these diets, larval growth and development were retarded, small cocoons appeared, and the adults laid only a small number of eggs. At first, we would like to study about nutritional requirement of the silkworm, using the chemically defined diet which prepared artificially. Subsequently, attempts were made to improve the diets by replacement of crude ingredients with possibly purer compounds, as mentioned later. Before giving the details on individual nutrient, I would like to summarize about the outline of utilization flow of various nutrients through the larval-pupal development and these daily quantitative requirements per body weight in the silkworm when they were reared on mulberry leaves.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.96-102
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• 2016

Recently silk polymer produced by Bombyx mori silkworm has been considered as biological macromolecules. Silk polymer was extracted in PBS solution at $37^{\circ}C$ for 72 h or $72^{\circ}C$ for 24 h. The effect of EtOH treatment on the cocoon extraction was also examined. The extraction yield of cocoon was less than 1 wt% regardless of extraction conditions. UV spectroscopy showed that the experimental extracts have absorption bands at 280 nm. There is no cytotoxicity effect on the mouse fibroblast L929 cell. The phenotype of L929 cell was not changed under the experimental conditions. The proliferation behavior of L929 cell was not affected by the addition of cocoon extract. Therefore, cocoon extract might be cytocompatible and can be used as promising biomaterials.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.117-125
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• 2003

To know the impact of female pupal weight corresponding to the male cocoon shell weight upon fecundity, hatchability and percentage of non-viable eggs, the experimental multivoltine breeds namely BL67 and 96A were categorised into low, medium and high batches according to the weight of female pupae and male cocoon shells and moths emerged from low, medium and high female pupae were allowed to mate withmoths emerged from low, medium and high male cocoon shells. Both the experimental breeds of BL67 and 96A revealed a fairl trend in fecundity for high batch ＞ medium batch ＞ low batch. When data were statistically analysed, a significant (p ＜ 0.05) and a highly significant (p ＜ 0.01) increase in fecundity was observed in the medium and high batches of BL67 during November - December, 2002 whereas highly significant (p ＜ 0.01) increase was observed in the high batches of 96A during November - December, 2002. Data revealed a highly significant (p ＜ 0.01) increase in fecundity in medium and high batches of both the breeds during January - February, 2003. More interestingly, a significant (p ＜ 0.05) reduction was noted in percentage of non-viable eggs in high batches of 96A during January - February, 2003. But no significant variation in hatchability was noticed due to the effect of differential female pupal weight and male cocoon shell weight.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.155-159
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• 2000

In the spring silkworm rearing period of year 1998, some nutritional aspects were studied in the Agricultural Research Station of the Komotini town in Greece, to investigate the feeding behaviour of some Bulgarian silkworm hybrids, suitable for spring rearing, during the fourth and fifth instal under the local climatic conditions. The silkworms were fed by locally cultivated Japanese Kinriu mulberry (Morus alba L.) variety leaves. Eight Bulgarian hybrids had been used, namely Vratza-53xVratza-52, Ukraine-20xVratza-53, Super 1xHessa 2, Merefa 2xVratza 35, as well as their reciprocal crosses. The studies showed out a remarkably higher feed intake and feed utilization by the hybrids Hessa 2xSuper-1, Merefa 2xVratza 35 and Vratza-52xVratza-53. The same hybrids showed an efficient food utilization by means of daily growths cocoon shell ratio and raw silk output. In terms of food to silk conversion efficiency Hessa 2xSuper-1 hybrid gave the best results. Larval stage duration for fourth and fifth instar was not affected by feed intake and utilization. All hybrids showed a good adaptation to the local environment and their feeding performance was equal to the international existing standards. All calculated parameters were found to be around the mean values of other up to date presented results and thus considered as acceptable for the needs of the local production.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.154-166
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• 1999

General characteristics and life span of silkworm moth were investigated amongst 277 gene resources preserved and maintained in Korea. Silkworm varieties were classified according to the commercial characteristics and the viability of tested varieties. There were significant differences among the eight different commercial characteristics of silkworm such as whole larval period, duration of 5th instar, pupal body weight, single cocoon weight, cocoon shell weight, cocoon shell ratio, cocoon yield and longevity, Tropical race showed the longest life span among the other five geographical races, and followed by Japanese, European, Chinese and Korean race in order. In the longevity of each variety, Daizo(sdi) showed the shortest life span with 4.3days, and J037 was the longest as 16.0 days. Average longevity of female was 11.1 days as showed 3.0 days longer than that of male which was 8.2 days. Total average longevity of the whole varieties was 9.7days. In the correlation between the longevity and commercial characteristics, there was a tendency that the commercial characteristics became better when the life span was longer. According to the result of Complete Linkage Cluster Analysis, the genetic resources of 277 silkworm varieties classified into 5 groups such as “Group I”for short life span with low cocoon yielding “Group II”for middle life span with middle cocoon yielding,“Group III”for the shortest life span with low cocoon yielding, “Group IV”for high pupation rate and the highest cocoon yielding with comparatively long life span, and “Group V”for the longest life span with comparatively high cocoon yielding.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.151-154
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• 1971

In the silkworm egg production, cutting of the cocoon's edge formed by silkworms forced to aid the emergence, and emergence is related to the amount of alkaloid liquid in the sucking stomach in certain varieties. In this study, there was no difference between cutting of portion and sex, and no significant between cutting of both sides and one side cocoons when comparing their emergence ratio. Expenditures and emergence ratio between both sides and one side cutting off must be studied in coming future.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.95-100
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• 2006

Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute, Mysore have evolved several highly productive bivoltine hybrids which can produce international grade raw silk. Among them $CSR2{\times}CSR4,\;CSR2{\times}CSR5,\;CSR3{\times}CSR6,\;CSR17{\times}CSR16,\;CSR18{\times}CSR19$ and $CSR12{\times}CSR6$ are being popularized in the field. There is a minimum difference in their economic characters but they appear to differ in survival. Though they are productive under high input management conditions, they are very susceptible to different diseases under normal rearing practices. No systematic attempts have been made to test their susceptibility status / resistance. Thus the present study is a modest attempt to screen the above six productive bivoltine hybrids to two important pathogens viz., Bombyx mori Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus (BmNPV) and Bombyx mori Infectious Flacherie Virus (BmIFV) along with existing hybrid, $KA{\times}NB4D2$ to assess their susceptibility / resistance. The results shows that the productive hybrid $CSR2{\times}CSR4$ is the most resistant to BmNPV and it is suggested by its highest $LC_{50}$ value followed by $CSR12{\times}CSR6,\;KA{\times}NB4D2,\;CSR3{\times}CSR6,\;CSR17{\times}CSR16,\;CSR18{\times}CSR19,\;CSR2{\times}CSR5$. Based on the $LC_{50}$ value and $LT_{50}$ values for BmIFV, the hybrid $KA{\times}NB4D2$ was found to be the most resistant (1st position) one followed by $CSR3{\times}CSR6$ (2nd position) $CSR2{\times}CSR$ (3rd position) and $CSR12{\times}CSR6$ (4th position) $CSR17{\times}CSR16$, $CSR18{\times}CSR19$ (5th position) and $CSR2{\times}CSR5$ being the least. The response of 7 bivoltine hybrids to both the pathogens BmNPV and BmIFV indicates that, the hybrids $CSR2{\times}CSR4$, $CSR12{\times}CSR6$ and $KA{\times}NB4D2$ were found to be the most resistant when compared to others. Further, $KA{\times}NB4D2$ being less productive hybrid with a shell ratio of 20.08%, the other two hybrids $CSR2{\times}CSR4$ (Cocoon shell ratio, 21.44%) and $CSR12{\times}CSR6$ (cocoon shell ratio, 23.45%) can be considered to be most productive with superior quality cocoon and resistant to both BmNPV and BmIFV pathogens. The overall study indicated that the hybrid $CSR2{\times}CSR5$ is the most susceptible hybrid to both the pathogens.