Inheritance and cocoon traits of a white-egg mutant strain derived from the C136 silkworm, Bombyx mori

抄録

 In 2005, a white egg mutant was segregated from the C136 strain of the silkworm, Bombyx mori, and was fixed as the C136W strain. Recently, several strains have been bred because silkworm strains with white eggs and white compound eyes have advantages for transgenic experiments. We considered that C136W would also be advantageous for such experiments. Therefore, we phenogenetically identified the white egg gene and evaluated cocoon traits to assess the practical use of C136W. Consequently, the white egg gene (w-1¹³⁶) was determined as an allele of w-1 mutant. However, because the DNA sequence of w-1¹³⁶ has not been determined to be identical to w-1 at the molecular level, the designation of w-1¹³⁶ is appropriate. In addition, C136W had an advantage in that its cocoon traits were superior to those of classical pure race.