Progetto BIOSILK

  • Progetti di eccellenza - Bando 2011-2012 Fondazione CARIPARO
  • Biosilk - Road: back to Italy - A new approach to sericulture to enhance silkworm natural strategies against pathogenic microorganisms

Objectives:
The general scientific aim of the project is to study the silkworm antimicrobial peptides  (AMPs), molecules involved in B. mori innate immune response and to produce silkworm lines with an enhanced resistance to pathogenic infections and a parallel good cocoon production.

The specific objectives of the proposal are:

1. To obtain B. mori lines and polyhybrid strains ameliorated for general resistance against pathogens.

2. To generate transgenic strains overexpressing different AMPs in the whole body and in fat bodies of B. mori.

3. To characterize viability and commercial traits of the natural and transgenic B. mori strains enhanced for general microbial resistance.

In addition, to re-establish a niche silk and silkworm egg production in Italy constitutes the social and economic objectives of our work.

Background:
AMPs are a wide heterogeneous group of small molecules involved in the innate immune response of Insects. Data on B. mori whole genome sequencing showed that this organism is characterized by several AMP genes. Distinct B. mori AMP genes are specifically activated after infection with different groups of pathogens. Silkworm strains are broadly divided into four groups: a) Japanese; b) Chinese; c) European; d) Tropical. Strains originated in the temperate belt (optimal silk producers) are weak to infective diseases, while tropical races (scanty silk producers) show a higher resistance to microbial infections. CRA-API (Padua seat) preserves around 200 silkworm strains, as a high source of genetic variability. This germplasm bank represents our starting point to develop the proposal, with the leading idea to exploit B. mori AMPs, in order to benefit sericultural activity. In the Venetian region, where the CRA-API (Padua seat) is located, sericulture has been practiced until a very recent past. Considering that the recent economical development of China (main silk producer in the world) has been reflected in a remarkably decreasing of its silk export with a unforeseeable increase of the silk price, we believe there could be a new perspective for sericulture in our region. Our challenge is to combine microbiology, biotechnologies and traditional selection practices in order to give a new impulse to the sector.

Research Unit scientist in charge

Principal Investigator

  • Dr. Silvia Cappellozza (SC), Consiglio per la Ricerca e Sperimentazione in Agricoltura, Unità di Ricerca di Apicoltura e Bachicoltura di Bologna, sede di bachicoltura di Padova CRA-API

Partnership

  • Dipartimento di Biologia (DB), Università di Padova (Federica Sandrelli)
  • Dipartimento di Agronomia Animali Alimenti Risorse Naturali e Ambiente (DAFNAE), Università di Padova, (Andrea Battisti, Andrea Squartini)
  • Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Scienze della Vita (DBSV), Università dell’Insubria (Gianluca Tettamanti)