ArticleGenome research2006
A highly divergent gene cluster in honey bees encodes a novel silk family.
Article in Genome research, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
- Integrating WGCNA, TCN, and Alternative Splicing to Map Early Caste Programs in Day-2 Honeybee Larvae.Genes · 2025Article
- Resolving the structure and assembly of the honeybee silk heterotetrameric coiled coil.Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society · 2025Article
- Article
- Honey Bee Larval Hemolymph as a Source of Key Nutrients and Proteins Offers a Promising Medium forInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- In the battle of the disease: a transcriptomic analysis of European foulbrood-diseased larvae of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera).BMC genomics · 2022Article
- Juvenile hormone pathway in honey bee larvae: A source of possible signal molecules for the reproductive behavior ofEcology and evolution · 2021Article
- Comparative transcriptomics indicates endogenous differences in detoxification capacity after formic acid treatment between honey bees and varroa mites.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Confirmation of Bioinformatics Predictions of the Structural Domains in Honeybee Silk.Polymers · 2018Article
- Did aculeate silk evolve as an antifouling material?PloS one · 2018Article
- Silk Materials Functionalized via Genetic Engineering for Biomedical Applications.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2017Review
- Ecological Succession in the Honey Bee Gut: Shift in Lactobacillus Strain Dominance During Early Adult Development.Microbial ecology · 2016Article
- More than one way to spin a crystallite: multiple trajectories through liquid crystallinity to solid silk.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2015Review
- A new class of animal collagen masquerading as an insect silk.Scientific reports · 2013Article
- Controlling the molecular structure and physical properties of artificial honeybee silk by heating or by immersion in solvents.PloS one · 2012Article
- Silk from crickets: a new twist on spinning.PloS one · 2012Article
- Production, structure and in vitro degradation of electrospun honeybee silk nanofibers.Acta biomaterialia · 2011Article
- Taxonomically restricted genes are associated with the evolution of sociality in the honey bee.BMC genomics · 2011Article
- Article
- Harnessing disorder: onychophorans use highly unstructured proteins, not silks, for prey capture.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2010Article
- Review
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The pupal cocoon of the domesticated silk moth Bombyx mori is the best known and most extensively studied insect silk. It is not widely known that Apis mellifera larvae also produce silk. We have used a combination of genomic and proteomic techniques to identify four honey bee fiber genes (AmelFibroin1-4) and two silk-associated genes (AmelSA1 and 2). The four fiber genes are small, comprise a single exon each, and are clustered on a short genomic region where the open reading frames are GC-rich amid low GC intergenic regions. The genes encode similar proteins that are highly helical and predicted to form unusually tight coiled coils. Despite the similarity in size, structure, and composition of the encoded proteins, the genes have low primary sequence identity. We propose that the four fiber genes have arisen from gene duplication events but have subsequently diverged significantly. The silk-associated genes encode proteins likely to act as a glue (AmelSA1) and involved in silk processing (AmelSA2). Although the silks of honey bees and silkmoths both originate in larval labial glands, the silk proteins are completely different in their primary, secondary, and tertiary structures as well as the genomic arrangement of the genes encoding them. This implies independent evolutionary origins for these functionally related proteins.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.