Knockout of Bombyx sericin genes using zinc finger nucleases

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Sericin proteins are a group of glue proteins which constitute silkworm cocoons. Two sericin encoding genes, Ser1 and Ser3, were mutated by sequence-specific engineered nucleases separately, and Ser1- and Ser3-deficient strains were obtained, respectively. The homozygous mutant strains were confirmed to lack of the corresponding proteins in the cocoon. A similar method is applicable to remove a specific region of these genes in order to generate a novel sericin with different property. The silkworm strain with mutant sericin protein(s) will be useful for material production by silk glands as well as production of new silk fibers with additional functions, in which removal of sericin is regarded as a technical barrier.