title: Orthologs of human disease associated genes and RNAi analysis of silencing insulin receptor gene in Bombyx mori.
abstract: The silkworm, Bombyx mori L., is an important economic insect that has been domesticated for thousands of years to produce silk. It is our great interest to investigate the possibility of developing the B. mori as human disease model. We searched the orthologs of human disease associated genes in the B. mori by bi-directional best hits of BLAST and confirmed by searching the OrthoDB. In total, 5006 genes corresponding to 1612 kinds of human diseases had orthologs in the B. mori, among which, there are 25 genes associated with diabetes mellitus. Of these, we selected the insulin receptor gene of the B. mori (Bm-INSR) to study its expression in different tissues and at different developmental stages and tissues. Quantitative PCR showed that Bm-INSR was highly expressed in the Malpighian tubules but expressed at low levels in the testis. It was highly expressed in the 3rd and 4th instar larvae, and adult. We knocked down Bm-INSR expression using RNA interference. The abundance of Bm-INSR transcripts were dramatically reduced to ~4% of the control level at 6 days after dsRNA injection and the RNAi-treated B. mori individuals showed apparent growth inhibition and malformation such as abnormal body color in black, which is the typical symptom of diabetic patients. Our results demonstrate that B. mori has potential use as an animal model for diabetic mellitus research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China. zhangzan125@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Zan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China. tengxiaolu177546@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Xiaolu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.affiliation: College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Taicheng Road, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China. cmhwh1@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Maohua
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China. lifei@njau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D012831:Bombyx / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D007814:Larva / Q000378:metabolism; D034622:RNA Interference; D012330:RNA, Double-Stranded / Q000378:metabolism; D011972:Receptor, Insulin / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D012330:RNA, Double-Stranded; D011972:Receptor, Insulin