The metabolism of substances such as amino acids and carbohydrates plays a crucial role in the growth and development of silkworms. Analyzing the differential expression of key genes associated with these metabolic processes can help elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying abnormal development in silkworm mutants. This study conducted and compared transcriptome analyses of individuals from the silkworm mutant perforated small cocoon(psc) and the wild-type XueSong KD(XSKD) at the third-instar larval stage. A total of 716 differentially expressed genes were identified, including 354 upregulated genes and 362 downregulated genes. Functional annotation based on the KEGG database indicates that these differentially expressed genes were mainly enriched in metabolic pathways related to amino acids, carbohydrates, and lipids, as well as pathways involving neuroactive ligand-receptor interactions. Some key enzyme genes involved in substance metabolism and important neuroreceptor genes played a crucial role in the formation of the psc. In addition, by selecting some differentially expressed genes for qRT-PCR verification, the results indicated that the identification of differentially expressed genes were reliable. This study utilized RNA sequencing technology to screen for differentially expressed genes between the psc mutant and the XSKD. These findings provide important insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of the abnormal phenotypes in the psc mutant, and they also have certain guiding significance for the breeding of high-quality large cocoon silkworm varieties.
Zhou et al. (Thu,) studied this question.