MAHMOUD SAAD IBRAHIEM SAAD, ENAS MOUSTAFA YOUSEF ELYAMANI*, MARWA NABIL MOUSTAFA ABDELHAMID AND HATEM ABDELMONEIM MOHAMED FOUAD
Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki, Cairo 12622, Egypt
*(e-mail: enaselyamani3@gmail.com; Mobile: 20 11566 69097)
(Received: August 16, 2023; Accepted: August 29, 2023)
ABSTRACT
The temperature influences silk productivity. Recently, the sudden increase in temperature that reached between 40-45°C for a whole day affected the breeding of the silkworm. The current study tested the effects of sudden thermal stresses on physiological and protein profiles of a silkworm, Bombyx mori. The fourth and fifth silkworm larval instars were exposed to a high temperature (40oC) for five periods (3, 5, 7, 9 and 12 h) in an incubator. The obtained results indicated that the responses of exposed larvae were different according to the exposure periods and larval instar, where the relatively high level of total protein was recorded in the fourth instar larvae that were exposed to the period of 5 h followed by that exposed for 7 h. In addition, the catalase enzyme was found to have decreased in exposed larvae in comparison with that of control. As a result of electrophoresis, the protein bands varied in numbers and molecular weight with the exposure period and larval instar. The findings suggested that exposure to high temperatures for specific periods may benefit the physiological properties and generation of the protein component of silk produced by silkworms.
Key words : High-temperature, physiological properties, enzyme level, protein electrophoresis