Investigation : on of insect Photoperidic receptor using moleculer Biology

本项目的目的是在分子水平上阐明昆虫（蚕）光周期感受器。我们推测脑内的受体是视紫红质样分子，并试图通过分子生物学技术揭示其结构和功能。本课题首次发现：（1）滞育激素的分泌部位是咽体复合体和心体复合体;（2）在食道下复合体中鉴定出滞育合成神经分泌细胞。(3)以家蚕复眼cDNA为模板，根据无脊椎动物视蛋白基因保守区设计引物，扩增出目的片段，并对其中两个片段进行了测序，其序列与其他视蛋白序列相似。(4)最后以家蚕脑cDNA为模板，成功地扩增并亚克隆了视蛋白样色素的一个片段，并通过3 '-和5'-race法测定了其全长序列。

The purpose of this project is an elucidation of the insect (silkworm) photoperiodic photoreceptor at the molecular level. We supposed the receptor which locates in the brain is rhodopsin-like molecule, and tried to reveal its structure and function by molecular biological techniques. In this project we found first that (1) the secretory site of diapause hormone is the complex of the corpora-allata and corpola-cardiaca complex, (2) and we identified the diapasue synthesising neurosecretory cells in the subesophageal complex. (3) We could amplify fragments using template of cDNA obtained from the compound eyes of the silkworm with primers designed on the basis of the conserved region of invertebrate opsin genes, and sequenced two fragements showing sequences which were similar to other opsins. (4) Finally we succeeded the amplification and subcloning one fragment of opsin-like pigment using cDNA of silkworm brain as template and the full length of the sequence was determined by 3'-and 5'-race method.