Comparative Fecal Metabolomes of Silkworms Being Fed Mulberry Leaf and Artificial Diet

Abstract

Metabonomics accurately monitors the precise metabolic responses to various dietary patterns. Metabolic profiling allows simultaneous measurement of various fecal metabolites whose concentrations may be affected by food intake. In this study, we analyzed the fecal metabolomes of silkworm (Bombyx mori) larvae reared on fresh mulberry leaves and artificial diets. 57 differentially expressed metabolites were identified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Of these, 39 were up-regulated and 18 were downregulated in the mulberry leaf meal group. Most of the amino acids, carbohydrates and lipids associated with physical development and silk protein biosynthesis were enriched in silkworms reared on mulberry leaves. In contrast, the urea, citric acid, D-pinitol, D-(+)-cellobiose and N-acetyl glucosamine levels were relatively higher in the silkworm feeding on the artificial diets. The findings of this study help clarify the association between diet and metabolic profiling.

Biomedical applications of silkworm ( Bombyx Mori ) proteins in regenerative medicine (a narrative review)

“…Mori;Fu et al, 2009;A. T. Nguyen et al, 2015;Qin et al, 2020). Since silk is a structurally complex construct, it is worth deciphering some aspects of the terminology (Fink & Zha, 2018;Mason & Shimanovich, 2018).…”

Biochemical characterization and overexpression of an α‐amylase (BmAmy) in silkworm, Bombyx mori

“…However, silkworm could only feed on mulberry leaf, and this severely limits the productivity of sericulture. In the past decades, scientists have made great efforts in the development of artificial diet for silkworms, but those were still not comparable with mulberry leaf, and were far from being applied in sericulture (Qin et al, 2020). Characterization of the mechanism of nutrient utilization in silkworm would be helpful to optimize the artificial diet currently used.…”

Midgut and Head Transcriptomic Analysis of Silkworms Reveals the Physiological Effects of Artificial Diets

“…Differences in the proteome and fecal metabolome of silkworm pupae fed ML vs. an AD have been observed, thus affecting lipid transport and metabolism in silkworm pupae treated with various nutrients. The content of amino acids, carbohydrates and fatty acids in metabolites in silkworms fed an AD is significantly diminished [ 16 , 17 ]. The silkworm midgut not only serves as the site of nutrient digestion and absorption, but also helps resist pathogenic microorganisms.…”