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Bioengineered silkworms with butterfly cytotoxin-modified silk glands produce sericin cocoons with a utility for a new biomaterial
- Source :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114:6740-6745
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2017.
-
Abstract
- Genetically manipulated organisms with dysfunction of specific tissues are crucial for the study of various biological applications and mechanisms. However, the bioengineering of model organisms with tissue-specific dysfunction has not progressed because the challenges of expression of proteins, such as cytotoxins, in living cells of individual organisms need to be overcome first. Here, we report the establishment of a transgenic silkworm (Bombyx mori) with posterior silk glands (PSGs) that was designed to express the cabbage butterfly (Pieris rapae) cytotoxin pierisin-1A (P1A). P1A, a homolog of the apoptosis inducer pierisin-1, had relatively lower DNA ADP ribosyltransferase activity than pierisin-1; it also induced the repression of certain protein synthesis when expressed in B. mori-derived cultured cells. The transgene-derived P1A domain harboring enzymatic activity was successfully expressed in the transgenic silkworm PSGs. The glands showed no apoptosis-related morphological changes; however, an abnormal appearance was evident. The introduced truncated P1A resulted in the dysfunction of PSGs in that they failed to produce the silk protein fibroin. Cocoons generated by the silkworms solely consisted of the glue-like glycoprotein sericin, from which soluble sericin could be prepared to form hydrogels. Embryonic stem cells could be maintained on the hydrogels in an undifferentiated state and proliferated through stimulation by the cytokines introduced into the hydrogels. Thus, bioengineering with targeted P1A expression successfully produced silkworms with a biologically useful trait that has significant application potential.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Exocrine gland
Transgene
Fibroin
02 engineering and technology
Sericin
Animals, Genetically Modified
Mice
03 medical and health sciences
Exocrine Glands
Bombyx mori
Botany
medicine
Animals
Sericins
Bombyx
ADP Ribose Transferases
Multidisciplinary
biology
Cytotoxins
fungi
Hydrogels
Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells
Biological Sciences
021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology
biology.organism_classification
Embryonic stem cell
Cell biology
030104 developmental biology
medicine.anatomical_structure
Self-healing hydrogels
Cytokines
Insect Proteins
0210 nano-technology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 10916490 and 00278424
- Volume :
- 114
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....86fc96461f21e42c3f980d2b594b0044