A single-base deletion in an ABC transporter gene causes white eyes, white eggs, and translucent larval skin in the silkworm w-3(oe) mutant.
The w-3(oe) silkworm mutant has white eyes and eggs due to the absence of ommochrome pigments in the eye pigment cells and serosa cells. The mutant is also characterized by translucent larval skin resulting from a deficiency in the transportation of uric acid, which acts as a white pigment in larval epidermal cells. A silkworm homolog of the fruitfly white gene, Bmwh3, a member of ATP-binding cassette transporter superfamily, was mapped on the w-3 locus. The w-3(oe) mutant has a single-base deletion in exon 2 and a premature stop codon at the 5' end of exon 3. These results show that w-3 is equivalent to Bmwh3 and is responsible for the transportation of ommochrome precursors and uric acid into pigment granules and urate granules, respectively.
Kômoto
Natuo
N
Division of Insect Sciences, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Ibaraki 305-8634, Japan. natuo@affrc.go.jp
Quan
Guo-Xing
GX
Sezutsu
Hideki
H
Tamura
Toshiki
T
D018528:ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D012831:Bombyx / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005123:Eye / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D005136:Eye Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010063:Ovum / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D010641:Phenotype; D010858:Pigmentation; D017354:Point Mutation; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D012867:Skin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D014527:Uric Acid / Q000378:metabolism
D018528:ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters; D005136:Eye Proteins; D019476:Insect Proteins; D014527:Uric Acid