The effect of calorie restriction on growth and development in silkworm, Bombyx mori

Abstract

Caloric restriction (CR) is known to extend the life span in different species from yeast to mammals. In this report, a simple organism silkworm (Bombyx mori) was used to study the effect of moderate CR on the growth and development processes of insects. Here we show that an extension of life span upon moderate CR was observed in the silkworm. The total protein level in the 5th instar larvae hemolymph appeared to decline significantly under CR. SDS-PAGE analysis showed that the influence of CR was sex-dependent. The CR effects on female animals were much more significant than on the males. The MALDI-TOF MS study identified 16 proteins that expressed differentially among six groups of the male or female larvae fed at different time frequencies. Four of them, storage protein 1 (SP1), arylphorin (SP2), imaginal disk growth factor (IDGF), and 30-kDa lipoprotein, showed significant differences. It was demonstrated that these four proteins were up-regulated when the larvae were over-fed and down-regulated when the larvae were less-fed.

Autophagy and its physiological relevance in arthropods: Current knowledge and perspectives

“…154 In the larvae of the silkworm B. mori, the synthesis of IDGF is modulated on the basis of food availability. 155 Even if developmental autophagic cell death has been shown to occur in D. melanogaster, 11 specific pro-autophagic and protein factors have not been identified yet in insects. Several experiments performed mainly in Lepidoptera have suggested the existence of factors promoting developmental cell death in insects.…”

Identification of MBF2 family genes in Bombyx mori and their expression in different tissues and stages and in response to Bacillus bombysepticus infection and starvation

“…In the nervous system, BmTOR (target of rapamycin) plays a critical role in the regulation of growth, metabolism, development and survival at both the cellular and organismal levels, and can also be modulated by starvation (Hietakangas & Cohen, ; Wang & Proud, ; Zhou et al ., ). This phenomenon also exists for haemolymph, storage protein 1 (SP1), arylphorin (SP2), imaginal disk growth factor (IDGF) and 30‐kDa lipoprotein, which were up‐regulated when larvae were over‐fed and down‐regulated when larvae were starved (Li et al ., ). Some MBF2 family member genes were expressed in a tissue‐specific manner.…”

Mulberry whitefly (Pealius mori) interference with silkworm (Bombyx mori) nymphal development

“…Also, although no behavior data were collected, larvae that were provided heavily whiteflyinfested leaves appeared to be much less active in feeding, starting on the first day, as compared to larvae on the whitefly-free leaves. The effect of caloric restriction may be complex and not restricted to a single cause (Li et al 2009). Moreover, the duration of the larval stage can be extended with a depletion of juvenile hormone esterase (Zhang et al 2017).…”

“…Namely, a good diet may result in good biological performance while an inferior diet may result in an inferior performance. The total protein level in 5th instar larvae of B. mori has been demonstrated to be reduced with a moderate decrease in caloric consumption (Li et al 2009). When competing for the same resource, some arthropods may interfere with the populations of others (Grant and Grant 2006).…”