Metabonomic Analysis of Silkworm Midgut Reveals Differences between the Physiological Effects of an Artificial and Mulberry Leaf Diet

Juan Li; Jing Deng; Xuan Deng; Lianlian Liu; Xingfu Zha

doi:10.3390/insects14040347

Metabonomic Analysis of Silkworm Midgut Reveals Differences between the Physiological Effects of an Artificial and Mulberry Leaf Diet

Insects. 2023 Mar 31;14(4):347. doi: 10.3390/insects14040347.

Authors

Juan Li^{1

2}, Jing Deng¹, Xuan Deng¹, Lianlian Liu¹, Xingfu Zha¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Institute of Sericulture and Systems Biology, College of Sericulture, Textile and Biomass Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
² School of Life Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.

Abstract

Bombyx mori is a model lepidopteran insect of great economic value. Mulberry leaves are its only natural food source. The development of artificial diets can not only resolve the seasonal shortage of mulberry leaves but also enable changes to be made to the feed composition according to need. Metabolomic differences between the midguts of male and female silkworms fed either on fresh mulberry leaves or an artificial diet were studied using liquid chromatography-mass spectrography (LC-MS/MS) analysis. A total of 758 differential metabolites were identified. Our analysis showed that they were mainly involved in disease resistance and immunity, silk quality, and silkworm growth and development. These experimental results provide insights into the formulation of optimized artificial feed for silkworms.

Keywords: artificial diet; metabolomics; midgut; mulberry leaf; silkworm.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by Chongqing Talent Program, grant number cstc2021ycjh-bgzxm0049, and a grant from Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (XDJK2019B044).