Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1982704 | Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | 2009 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
The w-3oe silkworm mutant has white eyes and eggs due to the absence of ommochrome pigments in the eye pigment cells and serosa cells. The mutant is also characterized by translucent larval skin resulting from a deficiency in the transportation of uric acid, which acts as a white pigment in larval epidermal cells. A silkworm homolog of the fruitfly white gene, Bmwh3, a member of ATP-binding cassette transporter superfamily, was mapped on the w-3 locus. The w-3oe mutant has a single-base deletion in exon 2 and a premature stop codon at the 5â² end of exon 3. These results show that w-3 is equivalent to Bmwh3 and is responsible for the transportation of ommochrome precursors and uric acid into pigment granules and urate granules, respectively.
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Authors
Natuo Kômoto, Guo-Xing Quan, Hideki Sezutsu, Toshiki Tamura,