Genetic analysis of the electrophysiological response to salicin, a bitter substance, in a polyphagous strain of the silkworm Bombyx mori.

ABSTRACT: Sawa-J is a polyphagous silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) strain that eats various plant leaves that normal silkworms do not. The feeding preference behavior of Sawa-J is controlled by one major recessive gene(s) on the polyphagous (pph) locus, and several minor genes; moreover, its deterrent cells possess low sensitivity to some bitter substances including salicin. To clarify whether taste sensitivity is controlled by the pph locus, we conducted a genetic analysis of the electrophysiological characteristics of the taste response using the polyphagous strain Sawa-J·lem, in which pph is linked to the visible larval marker lemon (lem) on the third chromosome, and the normal strain Daiankyo, in which the wild-type gene of pph (+(pph)) is marked with Zebra (Ze). Maxillary taste neurons of the two stra

SUBMITTER: Iizuka T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3359296 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature