Characterization of E. coli-induced genes in Bombyx mori fatbody using expressed sequence tags analysis

Abstract

To accelerate the molecular analysis of specifically induced antibacterial peptide against pathogen (E. coli), cDNA library prepared from the larvae fatbody of Bombyx mon was examined by the expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis. In a total of 722 clones, 653 clones were unique genes. Of 653 unique genes, 43.2% (282/653 ESTs) was identified as characterized genes, 38.1% (249/653 ESTs) as uncharacterized genes, and 18.7% (122/653 ESTs) as novel ESTs. According to the functional categorization of the characterized genes, 36.2% (102/282 ESTs) was antibacterial proteins. The highest expressed peptides, 78.4% of all the expressed antibacterial proteins (80/102 ESTs), belonged to the cecropin family. The antibacterial effect of selected clones representing novel ESTs based on a phylogenetic analysis was examined against various bacterial strains. None of the clones showed significant inhibitory effect to the bacteria tested. These results suggested that most of the novel molecules induced by E. coli may not act as immune-induced antibacterial peptides in the fatbody.