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）的光周期光感受器。我们认为这种受体是一种类似于视紫红质的分子，并试图通过分子生物学技术揭示其结构和功能。在这个项目中，我们首先发现(1)滞育激素的分泌部位是腹体和心体复合体的复合体，(2)我们在食管下复合体中发现了合成神经分泌细胞的滞育。(3)利用从家蚕复眼中获得的cDNA模板，利用无脊椎动物视蛋白基因保守区设计的引物扩增片段，并对两个片段进行测序，得到与其他视蛋白相似的序列。(4)最后以家蚕脑cDNA为模板，成功扩增和亚克隆了一个视蛋白样色素片段，并采用3′和5′杂交法测定了该片段的全长。

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.