Patterning defects in silkworm embryos analysed through cuticle preparations

Abstract

The mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori, a lepidopteran insect holometabolous has a metameric body plan. Because of its functional adaptation, B. mori presents unique deviations of structure, from Drosophila melanogaster, dipterous insect more evolutionarily advanced. Previous studies on the analysis of mutant phenotypes in B. mori were performed during the later stages of larval development. Here, we used the approach of the cuticular preparation during embryonic development to study the morphological markers associated with B. mori, and Eri, another species of silkworms and structural defects associated with mutant EKP B. mori. The homeotic mutant EKP, develops ectopic abdominal legs, a character that it has received information that during larval development. Using the approach of the cuticular preparation, we could detect structural defects of abdominal legs of the additional mutation EKP, from 7.5 days in the embryo. We can use this approach to study the structure of defects that affect early development in the mutants of B. mori.