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The middle silk gland (MSG) of silkworm is thought to be a potential host for mass-producing valuable recombinant proteins. Transgenic MSG expression systems based on the usage of promoter of sericin1 gene (sericin-1 expression system) have been established to produce various recombinant proteins in MSG. However, further modifying the activity of the sericin-1 expression system to yield higher amounts of recombinant proteins is still necessary. In this study, we provide an alternative modification strategy to construct an efficient sericin-1 expression system by using the hr3 enhancer (hr3 CQ) from a Chongqing strain of the Bombyx mori nuclear polyhedrosis virus (BmNPV) and the 3'UTRs of the fibroin heavy chain (Fib-HPA), the fibroin light chain (Fib-LPA), and Sericin1 (Ser1PA) genes. We first analyzed the effects of these DNA elements on expression of luciferase, and found that the combination of hr3 CQ and Ser1PA was most effective to increase the activity of luciferase. Then, hr3 CQ and Ser1PA were used to modify the sericin1 expression system. Transgenic silkworms bearing these modified sericin1 expression vectors were generated by a piggyBac transposon mediated genetic transformation method. Our results showed that mRNA level of DsRed reporter gene in transgenic silkworms containing hr3 CQ and Ser1PA significantly increased by 9 fold to approximately 83 % of that of endogenous sericin1. As the results of that, the production of recombinant RFP increased by 16 fold to 9.5 % (w/w) of cocoon shell weight. We conclude that this modified sericin-1 expression system is efficient and will contribute to the MSG as host to mass produce valuable recombinant proteins.

We demonstrate that stable microwave‐coupled atmospheric pressure nonequilibrium plasmas (APNEPs) can be formed under a wide variety of gas and flow‐rate conditions. Furthermore, these plasmas can be effectively used to remove surface contamination and chemically modify polymer surfaces. These chemical changes, generally oxidation and crosslinking, enhance the surface properties of the materials such as surface energy. Comparisons between vacuum plasma and atmospheric plasma treatment strongly indicate that much of the vacuum‐plasma literature is pertinent to APNEP, thereby providing assistance with understanding the nature of APNEP‐induced reactions. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 40: 95–109, 2002

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