Nutrigenetic Screening Strains of the Mulberry Silkworm,Bombyx mori, for Nutritional Efficiency

Abstract

The activity of sericulture is declining due the reduction of mulberry production area in sericulture practicing countries lead to adverse effects on silkworm rearing and cocoon production. Screening for nutrigenetic traits in silkworm, Bombyx mori L. (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae) is an essential prerequisite for better understanding and development of nutritionally efficient breeds/hybrids, which show less food consumption with higher efficiency conversion. The aim of this study was to identify nutritionally efficient polyvoltine silkworm strains using the germplasm breeds RMW2, RMW3, RMW4, RMG3, RMG1, RMG4, RMG5, RMG6 and APM1 as the control. The 1st day of 5th stage silkworm larvae of polyvoltine strains were subjected to standard gravimetric analysis until spinning for three consecutive generations covering three different seasons on 19 nutrigenetic traits. Highly significant (p ≤ 0.001) differences were found among all nutrigenetic traits of polyvoltine silkworm strains in the experimental groups. The nutritionally efficient polvoltine silkworm strains were resulted by utilizing nutrition consumption index and efficiency of conversion of ingesta/cocoon traits as the index. Higher nutritional efficiency conversions were found in the polyvoltine silkworm strains on efficiency of conversion of ingesta to cocoon and shell than control. Comparatively smaller consumption index, respiration, metabolic rate with superior relative growth rate, and quantum of food ingesta and digesta requisite per gram of cocoon and shell were shown; the lowest amount was in new polyvoltine strains compared to the control. Furthermore, based on the overall nutrigenetic traits utilized as index or ‘biomarkers’, three polyvoltine silkworm strains (RMG4, RMW2, and RMW3) were identified as having the potential for nutrition efficiency conversion. The data from the present study advances our knowledge for the development of nutritionally efficient silkworm breeds/hybrids and their effective commercial utilization in the sericulture industry.

Comparative study of nutritional and economical parameters of silkworm (Bombyx mori) treated with silver nanoparticles and Spirulina

“…Further, it has been revealed from the present study that the tissue weight was significantly increased in the third instar. A similar trend was noticed with ECI, ECD, and RGR in the earlier reports (Alessio et al, 2014;Chinnaswamy et al, 2011). Respiration is the total oxidation of the digested or assimilated food for releasing energy required for the entire biological activities by breakdown of macromolecules into simpler molecules.…”

“…The Lepidopteron insect (B. mori) is highly specialized for rapid growth, primarily achieved by higher rate of food Table 2 Growth rate of the fifth-instar larvae of silkworm consumption. In the present nutritional efficiency conversion among the six groups, the AgNPs with Spirulina-treated group has the lowest ingesta and highest digesta values (Chinnaswamy, Hothur, Kumar, Anuradha, & Kumar, 2011). Consumption index and efficiency conversion of ingesta are the driving indexes in deciding efficiency of groups, and thus, in our condition, AgNPs with Spirulina-treated group expressed the best performances.…”

Differences in gut microbiota between silkworms (Bombyx mori) reared on fresh mulberry (Morus albavar. multicaulis) leaves or an artificial diet

“…[1][2][3] Establishing an articial diet to rear silkworms in all-weather factory farming, as found in the livestock and poultry industries, is of great importance. 1,4,5 However, even though sericulturists have long been concerned about breeding silkworm varieties with good ingestive abilities for articial diets 6,7 and articial diet formulae are constantly being improved, [8][9][10] issues such as physical weakness and low silk yield in B. mori reared on articial diets have not been resolved, to date, and the metabolic utilization of articial diets in silkworms is still less than that of mulberry leaves. 1,11 The effect of the composition and activity of the gut microbiota on host animals cannot be ignored.…”

A midgut‐specific serine protease, BmSP36, is involved in dietary protein digestion in the silkworm, Bombyx mori

“…The silkworm, B. mori is a lepidopteran insect that feeds exclusively on mulberry leaves (Chinnaswamy et al, 2012). The ability of B. mori to produce and secrete digestive enzymes is strongly influenced by the nutrient composition of the diet.…”