1Krishna Institute of Science and Technology, Krishna Vishwa Vidyapeeth “Deemed to be University”, Karad, Satara - 415 539, Maharashtra, India, E-mail: pp1655159@gmail.com
2Department of Agriculture, Noida International University, Greater Noida, Gautam Buddha Nagar - 201 310, Uttar Pradesh, India, E-mail: fazil@niu.edu.in
3Department of Pharmacology, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Krishna Vishwa Vidyapeeth “Deemed to be University”, Karad, Satara - 415 539, Maharashtra, India, E-mail: salvepratibha@yahoo.in
4Department of Biotechnology, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai - 600 119, Tamil Nadu, India, E-mail: thyagarajan.biotech@sathyabama.ac.in
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar – 751 030, Odisha, India
*Corresponding authors’ E-mail: sandeepsingh@soa.ac.in
Online published on 18 February, 2026.
New approaches found promising in silkworms for enhancing features like silk quality, disease protection, and efficiency are molecular breeding and genetic editing. This research report delves further into how genetic editing and molecular breeding techniques have been applied to raise quality parameters in silkworms rearing. Following conventional breeding techniques, use of molecular tools including genome editing technologies such as CRISpen/Cas9, quantitative trait loci (QTL), and marker-assisted selection (MAS), TALENs, and RNA interference (RNAi) have shown great promise in silkworm breeding. These techniques may be applied to improve silk quality, increase in silkworm resistance to illnesses, and even employ silkworms as bioreactors producing valuable proteins. Case examples on the line of illustrating the benefits of excellent genetic modifications, their application in the corporate sector, and their impact on the sericulture sector are discussed. From ethical, environmental, and legal angles, the application of genetic editing in silkworms emphasises the necessity of responsible innovation. This study article aims to present a whole picture of how sericulture, genetic engineering, and molecular breeding cooperate, with particular attention on how these technologies might entirely transform the production of silk.
Disease resistance, Genetic modification, Genome editing, Marker-assisted selection, Molecular breeding, Quantitative trait loci, RNA interference, Silk production, Silkworm, Transgenic
