Complete Resequencing of 40 Genomes Reveals Domestication Events and Genes in Silkworm ( Bombyx )

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1176620
• Publication Date: 2009-08-28T02:00:33Z
• Authors: Qingyou Xia; Yiran Guo; Ze Zhang; Dong Li; Zhaoling Xuan; Zhuo Li; Fangyin Dai; Yingrui Li; Daojun Cheng; Ruiqiang Li; Tingcai Cheng; Tao Jiang; Celine Becquet; Xun Xu; Chun Liu; Xingfu Zha; Wei Fan; Ying Lin; Yihong Shen; Lan Jiang; Jeffrey Jensen; Ines Hellmann; Si Tang; Ping Zhao; Hanfu Xu; Chang Yu; Guojie Zhang; Jun Li; Jianjun Cao; Shiping Liu; Ningjia He; Yan Zhou; Hui Liu; Jing Zhao; Chen Ye; Zhouhe Du; Guoqing Pan; Aichun Zhao; Haojing Shao; Wei Zeng; Ping Wu; Chunfeng Li; Minhui Pan; Jingjing Li; Xuyang Yin; Dawei Li; Juan Wang; Huisong Zheng; Wen Wang; Xiuqing Zhang; Songgang Li; Huanming Yang; Cheng Lu; Rasmus Nielsen; Zeyang Zhou; Jian Wang; Zhonghuai Xiang; Jun Wang
• Keywords: Bombyx

The Taming of the Silkworm Silkworms, Bombyx mori , represent one few domesticated insects, having been over 10,000 years ago. Xia et al. (p. 433 published online 27 August) sequenced 29 domestic and 11 wild silkworm lines identified genes that were most likely to be selected during domestication. These those enhance silk production, reproduction, growth. Furthermore, silkworms probably only once from a large progenitor population, rather than on multiple occasions, as has observed for other animals.