ArticlePloS one2018
Accumulation of uric acid in the epidermis forms the white integument of Samia ricini larvae.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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6 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Regulatory mechanisms of nitrogen homeostasis in insect growth and development.Insect science · 2026Review
- Genetic and morphological variation in the Colombian Bombyx mori germplasm: A first SSR-based assessment.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- Silencing of Aquaporin Homologue Accumulates Uric Acid and Decreases the Lifespan of the Asian Citrus Psyllid,Insects · 2021Article
- Article
- The road to lysosome-related organelles: Insights from Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome and other rare diseases.Traffic (Copenhagen, Denmark) · 2019Review
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5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
The white color in the larval integument of the silkworm Bombyx mori is considered the result of uric acid accumulation in its epidermal cells. Larvae of the eri silkworm Samia ricini (Lepidoptera; Saturniidae) also have a white and opaque integument, but little is known about its coloration mechanism. In this study, we first performed a feeding assay of S. ricini larvae using allopurinol, an inhibitor of xanthine oxidase, which catalyzes the degradation of xanthine to uric acid. This treatment induced a clear translucent integument phenotype, indicating that the larval color of S. ricini is also determined by uric acid accumulation. Next, to investigate the genetic basis that controls uric acid accumulation in S. ricini larvae, we isolated and characterized the S. ricini homolog of mammalian biogenesis of lysosome-related organelles complex 1, subunit 2 (BLOS2), which is known to play a crucial role in urate granule biosynthesis. We created a transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN)-mediated gene knockout of S. ricini BLOS2 (SrBLOS2) and succeeded in establishing SrBLOS2 knockout strains (SrBLOS2KO). SrBLOS2KO mutants exhibited a translucent larval integument phenotype and lacked uric acid in the epidermis, as also observed in allopurinol-fed larvae. In addition, electron microscopy revealed that urate granules were rarely observed in the epidermis of SrBLOS2KO larvae, whereas abundant granules were found in the epidermis of wild-type larvae. These results clearly demonstrated that larval S. ricini accumulates uric acid as urate granules in the epidermis and that the genetic basis that controls uric acid accumulation is evolutionarily conserved in S. ricini and B. mori.
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