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(家蚕)的光周期感受器。我们假设位于大脑中的受体是视紫红质样分子，并试图通过分子生物学技术来揭示其结构和功能。在本项目中，我们首先发现(1)滞育激素的分泌部位是体舌和体心复合体的复合体，(2)我们在食道下复合体中鉴定了滞育合成神经分泌细胞的滞育。(3)根据无脊椎动物视蛋白基因的保守区设计引物，以家蚕复眼DNA为模板，扩增出片段，并对两个片段进行了序列测定。(4)以家蚕脑c DNA为模板，成功地扩增和亚克隆了视蛋白样色素基因片段，并用3‘-RACE和5’-RACE方法测定了该序列的全长。

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.