The mulberry white caterpillar, Rondotia menciana, belongs to the lepidopteran family Bombycidae, in which the domestic silkworm, Bombyx mori is included. In this study, we describe the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) sequences of the species in terms of general genomic features and characteristic features found in the A+T-rich region. The 15,364-bp long genome consisted of a typical set of genes (13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes and 22 tRNA genes) and one major non-coding A+T-rich region, with the typical arrangement found in Lepidoptera. Twelve of the 13 PCGs start with typical ATN codons, except for the COI, which begins with CGA. Twelve of the 13 PCGs have complete stop codon, except for COII, which ends up with a single T. The 360-bp long A+T-rich region harbored the conserved sequence blocks that are typically found in lepidopteran insects. Additionally, the A+T-rich region of R. menciana contained one tRNAMet-like structure, which has a proper anticodon and secondary structure.

동맥경화 상태에서는 혈관이 수축물질에 예민하게 반응 함으로써 혈압의 급격한 변화에 대한 회복능력이 저하한다. 한편 뽕나무 잎에는 고지방식의 섭취로 인해 발생하는 동맥경화증의 발달을 감소시킬 가능성이 있는 여러 물질이 있다고 추정된다. 뽕나무 잎을 백서에 투여하면 고지 방식에 의해 유발된 혈관이 예민해지는 현상을 감소시킬 수 있는지 시험하기 위하여 고지방식 및 뽕나무잎을 8주 간 투여하고 혈관수축 물질에 대한 혈압의 반응성을 시험 하였다. 순환기반사에 따른 혈압반응 감수성차이를 최소화 할 목적으로 동물의 중추신경계를 파괴(pithing)하고 시험 하였다. 고콜레스테롤을 함유한 식이를 공급한 백서에서 교감신경계 전기자극이나 norepinephrine, phenylephrine, angiotensin II 및 vasopressin 등의 투여로 유발된 혈압상승반응이 증강되었으며, 사료에 뽕잎을 2% 또는 10% 첨 가하면 정상적인 혈압상승반응을 보여주었다. 교감신경계를 파괴하지 않은 채 마취만 한 백서에서는 고콜레스테롤에 의한 반응증강이나 뽕잎에 의한 변화를 관찰할 수 없었다. 이 결과로 부터 뽕잎이 동맥경화에서 나타나는 혈관반응성 변화를 방지하는 데 유용한 것으로 판단할 수 있을 것이다.

Background : Mulberry (Morus alba L.), renowned for their medicine benefits and the leave as the sole food for silkworm (Bombyx mori). To understanding the molecular mechanism of color formation and nutritive value in different mulberry fruit varieties, we use high-throughput transcriptome sequencing technique to investigated the anthocyanin and betulinic biosynthesis pathway related functional genes. In addition, the total antosyanin and betuinic acid contend were also measured. Methods and Results : The resulting cDNA library was then sequenced using an Illumina HiSeq™ 2000 system. The clean reads were assembled using Trinity software, Then perform gene family clustering to get final unigenes. The pH differential method was used to determine the total anthocyanin content (TAC) of methanol extract from the red and white mulberry, and High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis was used to quantify the triterpenes content. In this study, total 50,149 unigenes with an average length of 1,125 nt and N50 equaling 1,861 nt were generated. Using these transcriptome sequecing, cDNAs encoding anthocyanin biosynthetic genes and triterpene biosynthetic genes were isolated. In addition, total anthocyanins and betulinic acid content were analyzed. A great amount of total anthocyanins (59.16 mg/g) were found in fully ripe fruit of Cheongil. Accumulation of betulin and betulinic acid were also detected in all stages of Cheongil and Turkey fruits with small amount. Conclusion : The results of transcriptome sequencing provide useful information at molecular lever in mulberry research, such as interesting gene discovering, marker assisted molecular breeding, and interesting metabolic pathway investigate. The gene expression results could help us understanding of the molecular mechanisms of different fruit color determining factor.