Abstract
Highly demanded glossy golden silk of Muga supports 100,000 households in the Northeastern India. However, the sericulture is labour-intensive and suffers heavy losses during unfavorable season, which hinders the distribution of seeds for the favorable season. The project was initated to cut the loss by introducing diapause trait into the Muga stock currently showing least tendencies of diapause. Traditional breeding to select for the stock showing stronger tendency of diapause is a time-consuming process and therefore biotechnological approach shall be undertaken. We first overviewed current understanding on neuroendocrinological mechanism that regulates development/diapause in lepidopterans especially in Saturnidae and Bombicidae to that the Muga has phylogenetic proximity. Diapause hormone and yamamarin are two candidates to knock in for installing egg diapause trait. Photoperiodic system for pupal diapause in Antherea pernyi has been elucidated and this could be another material of choice. We examined two other sources for the genes for transformation. One is a socalled cyclin kinase inhibitors (CKIs) and the other paralytic peptides (PP). The next we reviewed the molecular genetic technologies, such as germline transformation, RNAi and genome editing, which are currently available for introducing diapause capabilities to the Muga. Finally a tentative roadmap is given to substantiate the system for the practical ends.
