Positional cloning of a Bombyx pink-eyed white egg locus reveals the major role of cardinal in ommochrome synthesis.

ABSTRACT: Ommochromes are major insect pigments involved in coloration of compound eyes, eggs, epidermis and wings. In the silkworm Bombyx mori, adult compound eyes and eggs contain a mixture of the ommochrome pigments such as ommin and xanthommatin. Here, we identified the gene involved in ommochrome biosynthesis by positional cloning of B. mori egg and eye color mutant pink-eyed white egg (pe). The recessive homozygote of pe has bright red eyes and white or pale pink eggs instead of a normal dark coloration due to the decrease of dark ommochrome pigments. By genetic linkage analysis, we narrowed down the pe-linked region to ~258 kb, containing 17 predicted genes. RNA sequencing analyses showed that the expression of one candidate gene, the ortholog of Drosophila haem peroxidase cardinal, coincided

SUBMITTER: Osanai-Futahashi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4806880 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature