• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.74-76
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• 2007

Antheraea yamamai silk fibroin powder was prepared by treatment with HCl. Amino acid contents of the prepared Antheraea yamamai fibroin hydrolysates were composed of Gly, Ala, Glu, and so on. Biological activities of Antheraea yamamai silk fiborin powder were examined. It is showed about 75% of antioxidation activity compared to the reference ascorbic acid. And it lowered blood glucose level down from 550 mg/dl to 300 mg/dl by serving with wild silk protein.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.10-13
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• 2000

To develope the genetic source of oak wild silkworm, Antheraea yamamai, the cDNA library was constructed with poly A+ mRNA isolated from posterial silk gland of fifth instar larvae. Titer of the cDNA library was about 5.1$\times$105 pfu in total. We presumed that the titer covered almost all transcripts existed in Antherea yamamai. From cDNA library of Antheraea yamamai, fibroin heavy chain gene, which is specifically expressed from posterial silk gland of Antheraea yamamai, was screened using oligonuclotide probe specific to alanine rich motif of fibrin heavy chain gene of Antheraea pernyi. As a result, fibroin clones isolated from 5$\times$104 plaques showed the highest homolgy (95%) with that of Antherea pernyi in nucleotide of Anthereaea yamamai and Bombyx mori shows that there is no homologous sequence in the 3+ partial 채야후 region Genomic southern hybridization suggested that one copy is present. Northern hybridization showed that fibroin transcript was approximateely 9 kb in length.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.6-10
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• 2017

Dissolution of Antheraea yamamai silkworm cocoon was carried out in various solvent systems with various dissolving conditions including dissolution salts, salt concentration, dissolving temperature, and time. General chaotropic salt for Bombyx mori silk fibroin does not work for A. yamamai silkworm cocoon. Lithium bromide 9.3 M at $100^{\circ}C$ also does not work to dissolve wild silkworm cocoon. However, 9 M of lithium thiocyanate treatment at $100^{\circ}C$ induced 100% dissolution of wild silkworm cocoon. But it could not be dissolved lower than $60^{\circ}C$. Like lithium thiocyanate, less than $60^{\circ}C$ treatment with molten calcium nitrate 4 hydrate could not dissolve wild silkworm cocoon. As the dissolution temperature increased up to $100^{\circ}C$, the solubility of wild one was reached over 90%. SDS-PAGE showed broad tailing stream pattern that means the molecule of wild silk was depolymerized with dissolution temperature and time. From the above results, the best chaotropic salt for A.yamamai silkworm cocoon is calcium nitrate 4 hydrate.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.138-146
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• 1994

The structural characteristics of Antheraea yamamai and Antheraea pernyi silk were investigated by using x-ray diffraction method, IR spectroscopy and polarizing microscopy. The amino acid composition, fiber density, thermal decomposition temperature and glass transition temperature were also measured for relating these physical properties to the structure in comparison with those of Bombyx mori silk fiber. There was no significant structural difference between A. yamamai and A. pernyi silk fiber on an examination of x-ray diffraction curve and IR spectrum. Both of these wild silk fibers showed double diffraction peaks at the Bragg angle 2Θ16.7˚ and 20.5˚by x-ray diffraction analysis as well as IR absorption peaks for the bending vibration of specific groups related to ala-ala amino acid sequence. On the other hand, the x-ray diffraction curve and IR spectrum of Bombyx mori silk fiber are different from those of wild silk fibers, indicating different crystal structure as well as amino acid sequences. It showed under the polarizing microscope examination that the birefringence and optical orientation factor of wild silk fibers are much lower than those of B. mori silk. Also, the surface of degummed wild silk fibers was characterized by the longitudinal stripes of microfibrils in the direction of fiber axies. The amino acid composition, which is strongly related to the fine structure and properties, was not significantly different between these two wild silk fibers. However, the alanine content was somewhat less and polar amino acid content more for A. yamamai. As a result of fiber density measurement, the specific gravities of B. mori, A. pernyi and A. yamamai were 1.355~1.356, 1.308~1.311, 1.265~1.301g/㎤ in the order, respectively. The calculated crystallinity(%) was 64% for B. mori and 51~52% for wild silk fibers, which showed same trend by IR method in spite of somewhat higher value. The thermal decomposition behaviour was examined by DSC and TGA, showing that the degradation temperature was in the order of B mori, A. prernyi and A. yamamai at around 350$^{\circ}C$. It was also observed by TGA that the decomposition seems to proceed step by step according to their specific regions in the fiber structure, resulting the difference in their thermal stabilities. The glass transition temperature was turned out to be 220$^{\circ}C$ for B. mori, 240$^{\circ}C$ A. yamamai and 255$^{\circ}C$ A. pernyi by the dynamic mechanical analysis. It is expected that the chemical properties are affected by the dynamic mechanical behavior in accordance with their structural characters.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.17-21
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• 2022

The present study aimed to determine whether a hemolymph prepared from Antheraea yamamai larvae had the same biological activities using a Bombyx mori hemolymph prior to exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in order to induce an inflammatory response. The effects of the hemolymph were determined using a reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction to assess the expression of pro-inflammatory molecules. The A. yamamai hemolymph exerted anti-inflammatory effects on LPS-activated human monocytic leukemia cells via Toll-like receptor (TLR) 4-mediated suppression, similar to the B. mori hemocyte extract. Treatment with the A. yamamai hemolymph significantly suppressed LPS-induced upregulated inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) mRNA expression at all tested concentrations compared with the control, similar to the B. mori immune-challenged hemolymph. Finally, the A. yamamai hemolymph, like the B. mori immune-challenged hemolymph, suppressed all of these concentrations in a dose-independent manner. These results demonstrate that the hemolymph of A. yamamai exhibited important biologically active substances. Further in-depth functional studies are required to fully understand the mechanisms underlying the biological activities of wild-type silkworm hemolymphs.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2022

The wild silkmoth Antheraea yamamai Guérin-Méneville, 1861 (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) is an important producer of silk that is superior to the silk produced by traditional domesticated silkworm. In this study, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of An. yamamai collected from Jeju Island, which is the southernmost island approximately 100 km offshore southward from the Korean Peninsula. Determining this sequence will be necessary for tracing the biogeographic history of the species and developing molecular markers for identifying the origin of commercial products. Comparison of the sequence divergence among two available and the current mitogenomes revealed a low but substantial number of substitutions, totaling 23 nucleotides in the whole genome. CytB and ND5 showed the highest variability with five and four variations, respectively, suggesting that these regions will be prior regions to target for subsequent biogeographic and diagnosis study. Phylogenetic reconstruction based on all available sequences of Saturniidae showed that An. yamamai is a sister to the congeneric species An. pernyi, corroborating that Antheraea is a highly supported monophyletic group. The tribe Saturniini was clearly non-monophyletic and interrupted by Attacini and Bunaeini.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.72-76
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• 2004

We have studied the effect of silk proteins to the cell proliferation of human skin fibroblast cells (CCD-986sk) after injury. Silk proteins were extracted treatment with enzyme or NaOH solution from raw silk and culled-cocoon shell of Bombyx mori, Antheraea yamamai and A. pernyi. The cell proliferation after in vitro injury are increased in treatment by Bombyx mori (BM-1,2), Antheraea yamami (AY-1,2) and A. pernyi (AP-1,2). The silk protein fractions-treated cells exhibited proliferation in a dose dependent between $0.1\;{\mu}g/ml$ and $10\;{\mu}g/ml$. But, the macrophage, RAW 264. 7 cell viability was unaffected by the silk protein fractions by MTT assay. The molecular weights of the silk protein fractions were from 300-600 to 900-1500. These results results that the silk protein fractions may function through skin fibroblast proliferation.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.188-195
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• 2000

In order to understand molecular events during silk synthesis and provide genetic resources for molecular breeding, we had analyzed the cDNA library constructed from the posterior silkgland of Antheraea yamamai and partially sequenced 276 randomly selected genes from the cDNA library. Database comparisons of the expressed sequence tags (ESTs) revealed that 26 non-redundant clones showed a high similarity with previously identified genes. Among them, 17 clones exhibited a homology with previously identified insect genes and 9 clones were identical to genes that were previously identified from other organisms. A functional categorization showed that silk synthesis-defense- or stress-related genes, as well as genes involved in the metabolic pathways and in the transcriptional or translational apparatus are represented. In this report, the clone (AY479) which had high similarity with fibroin from A. pernyi was particularly analyzed in detail. The AY479 clone was carboxyl terminal region of fibroin. The 472 bp cDNA has 123 amino acids that shared 85% homology with the fibroin from A. pernyi and its deduced peptide had unique feature, that is, sites of alanine rich residues.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 2006

Antheraea yamamai silk fibroin powder was prepared by treatment with HCl. The prepared A. yamamai fibroin hydrolysate was characterized by gel filtration chromatography, amino acid analysis, X-ray diffractometry, circular dichroism analysis, differential thermal analysis, and thermogravimetry. The average molecular weight of A. yamamai powder was about 430 and the major amino acids composed of the powder were Ala and Ser. According to XRD analysis, A. yamamai silk powder showed sharp diffraction peaks at $2{\theta}=20.34^{\circ}\;and\;31.5^{\circ}$. CD spectrum showed a peak around 220 nm and a should 215 nm, assigned to ${\alpha}-helix\;and\;{\beta}-sheet$ structure, respectively. DSC and TGA showed that the maximum degradation temperature of powder was around $250{\sim}270^{\circ}C$. Moreover, no harmful heavy metal was contained in the A. yamamai silk fibroin hydrolysate.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.171-175
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• 2000

Determined sequences of 384 randomly selected clones in a PCR-based cDNA library of Antheraea yamamai could identify expressed sequence tags (ESTs) of highly expressed gene. One EST (fibroin) appeared 15 times, one EST (40S ribosomal protein S18) twelve times, one EST (ribosomal protein S24a) eleven times, ten times (ribosomal protein S8), nine times (60S ribosomal protein L10A), seven times (60S ribosomal protein S15A, S17, S17 and seroin), six times (ribosomal protein S8), five times (ribosomal protein S24, mariner transposase and P8 protein), four times (serpin 2), three times (heat shock protein 70 and poly A binding protein), and the remaining 6 ESTs twice (amylase, KIAA1006, elongation factor-1, transposon mag, translation initiation factor 4C, QM protein, transposase). Therefore, the 94 EST make it possible to identify 24 redundant clones that are candidates for highly expressed genes in posterior silk gland of this insect. The 24 redundant EST clones were identified in GenBank, but none of them was related to A. yamamai, suggesting that there are many unidentified genes which are highly expressed in the A. yamamai genome.