Mutant worms spin coloured silk

Japanese scientists say they have genetically engineered silkworms to produce a specific colour.

The author of the study, Takashi Sakudoh of the University of Tokyo, says understanding the pigment transport system of silkworms could "pave the way for genetic manipulation of the colour and pigment content of silk".

In nature, silkworm cocoon colours vary from white, yellow, straw, salmon, pink and green.

The colours in the silk are from natural pigments absorbed when the silkworms eat mulberry leaves.

Japanese researchers have observed in silkworms that produce white silk that the "yellow blood", or Y gene, was mutated. A segment of DNA had been deleted.

The Y gene enables silkworms to extract carotenoids, yellow-coloured compounds, from mulberry leaves.

The scientists have found that mutated insects produced a non-functional form of the carotenoid-binding protein (CBP), known to aid pigment uptake.

Using genetic engineering techniques, the researchers introduced pristine Y genes into the mutant insects.

The engineered worms produced working CBP and yellow-coloured cocoons.

The yellow colour became more vivid after rounds of crossbreeding.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, says the silk fibres could be produced in a flesh colour and a reddish colour.

linky

hey wormy can you spin me a yellow shirt please size L

Some groovy worms...

that is so cool, no more dye runs in the wash

expensive...

lol true but the worms need to make more colors



very lol



# The finest quality silk is made by mulberry silk moth, Bombyx mori, which, of course, feeds on mulberry leaves.

# The average cocoon contains 300-400 meters of silk.

# It takes about 5500 silkworms to produce 1 kg (2.2lb) of raw silk!

# One ounce of eggs produces about 20,000 worms, which consume a ton of mulberry leaves during their lifetime.

linky to silky info