Indian Journal of Microbiology

  • Year: 2005
  • Volume: 45
  • Issue: 4

Induction of bactericidal immune protein in the haemolymph of muga silkworm, Antheraea assama

  • Author:
  • Jyotsna Kumari1, Bala G. Unni1,, Sarma Ranju1, S.B. Wann1, Utpala Bora1, Mohan C. Kalita2
  • Total Page Count: 4
  • DOI:
  • Page Number: 273 to 276

1Biotechnology Division, Regional Research Laboratory (CSIR), Jorhat 785 006, Assam, India

2Biotechnology Department, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam 781014, India

Abstract

We isolated a bactericidal immune protein similar to attacin from the haemolymph of Muga silkworm, Antheraea assama. Healthy pupae of Muga silkworms were randomly selected from the rearing stock and injected with live, non pathogenic strain of Pseudomonas DAS-01 and control set was injected with Insect's Ringer's solution. Haemolymph collected 3 d after injection were subjected to 15% SDS and native gel electrophoresis. Injected pupal haemolymph showed 3 protein bands in low molecular weight region (18–24 kDa), which were absent in the control. These bands were gel eluted and tested for antibacterial activity by different methods. They were found to be effective against Pseudomonas aeruginosa AC-3. Further purification of these induced proteins was done by Sephadex G-75 column chromatography, HPLC and LC-MS. The second peak corresponding to low molecular weight protein was characterized using LC-MS and found to be positively charged, 23 kDa proteins.

Keywords

Antheraea assama induced protein, Antibacterial proteins, Pseudomonas DAS-01, Pseudomonas aeruginosa AC-3