title: A 25bp-long insertional mutation in the BmVarp gene causes the waxy translucent skin of the silkworm, Bombyx mori.
abstract: In Bombyx mori, there are more than 35 mutant strains whose larval skin color is transparent. The waxy translucent strain ow is one of the oily mutants which lack accumulation of uric acid in the epidermis. Here we performed positional cloning of the ow gene using the Bombyx draft genome sequence. For fine structure mapping, we succeeded to narrow the ow linked region to approximately 150kb, and identified the ow candidate gene by annotation analysis and DNA sequencing. The complete cDNA sequences of the ow gene from wild-type strains were 3501bp-long and potentially encoded a protein of 920 amino acids. We found a 25bp-long insertion in this gene in the ow mutant strain, resulting in a frame-shift mutation and generation of a premature stop codon. A BLAST search revealed that this protein had high homology to Varp, a recently identified protein containing a vacuolar sorting protein 9 domain and ankyrin repeats, and we termed the silkworm protein BmVarp. Varp has been shown to regulate endosome dynamics, suggesting that BmVarp may play an important role in the incorporation and/or accumulation of uric acid in the epidermis.
authors: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Biology, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Yayoi 1-1-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Katsuhiko
authors: K
authors: Ito
authors: Susumu
authors: S
authors: Katsuma
authors: Kimiko
authors: K
authors: Yamamoto
authors: Keiko
authors: K
authors: Kadono-Okuda
authors: Kazuei
authors: K
authors: Mita
authors: Toru
authors: T
authors: Shimada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D012831:Bombyx / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012867:Skin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism