Many kinds of cuticular proteins are found in a single insect species and their numbers and features are diversified among insects. Because there are so many cuticular proteins and so much sequence variation among them, an overview of cuticular protein gene is needed. Recently, a complete silkworm genome sequence was obtained through the integration of data from two whole genome sequence projects performed independently in 2004. To identify cuticular protein genes in the silkworm Bombyx mori exhaustively, we searched both the Bombyx whole genome sequence as well as various EST libraries, and found 220 putative cuticular protein genes. We also revised the annotation of the gene model, and named each identified cuticular protein based on its motif. The phylogenetic tree of cuticular protein genes among B. mori, Drosophila melanogaster, and Apis mellifera revealed that duplicate cuticular protein clusters have evolved independently among insects. Comparison of EST libraries and northern blot analyses showed that the tissue- and stage-specific expression of each gene was intricately regulated, even between adjacent genes in the same gene cluster. This study reveals many novel cuticular protein genes as well as insights into cuticular protein gene regulation.

中文翻译：

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家蚕表皮蛋白质基因的全基因组鉴定。

在单个昆虫物种中发现了多种表皮蛋白，它们的数量和特征在昆虫中是多种多样的。由于表皮蛋白太多，而且它们之间的序列变异很大，因此需要对表皮蛋白基因进行概述。最近，通过整合2004年独立进行的两个全基因组序列项目的数据，获得了完整的家蚕基因组序列。为了详尽地鉴定家蚕中的表皮蛋白基因，我们搜索了家蚕全基因组序列以及各种EST文库中，发现了220个推定的表皮蛋白基因。我们还修改了基因模型的注释，并根据其基序命名了每种已鉴定的表皮蛋白。家蚕，果蝇，果蝇中表皮蛋白基因的系统树 蜜蜂和蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）揭示，重复的表皮蛋白簇在昆虫之间独立地进化。EST文库和Northern blot分析的比较表明，即使在同一基因簇中的相邻基因之间，每个基因的组织和阶段特异性表达也受到复杂的调节。这项研究揭示了许多新颖的表皮蛋白基因，以及对表皮蛋白基因调控的见解。