Molecular Characterization of Two Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases: p38 MAP Kinase and Ribosomal S6 Kinase From Bombyx mori (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae), and Insight Into Their Roles in Response to BmNPV Infection

Muhammad, Azharuddin; Toufeeq, Shahzad; Yu, Hai-Zhong; Wang, Jie; Zhang, Shang-Zhi; Li, Bing; Li, Zhen; Yang, Li-Ang; Hu, Pei; Ma, Yan; Xu, Jia-Ping

Melting curve analysis confirmed that specific amplification was achieved using a pair of primers against the BmNPV GP41 gene. In the early stage after BmNPV infection (0-6 h), BmNPV proliferation was nearly undetected in the midgut-hypodermic injection and midgut-oral infection (Fig. 1) . As the infection progressed, BmNPV copy numbers increased significantly from 13.9 to 1,746.7 within 6-48 h in the susceptible P50 midgut injected. In contrast, the BmNPV proliferation rate was low in the resistant BC9 midgut injected, which slowly increased to 683.2 at 48 hpi and 11,210.8 at 72 hpi. In the midgut oral, the relative copy numbers of GP41 showed a similar pattern. The BmNPV copy numbers increased from 82.2 to 8,178.0 within 6-48 hpi in the susceptible P50. However, in resistant BC9, BmNPV proliferation was significantly slower with the relative copy number increasing from 6.5 to 2,216.2 within 6-48 hpi (Fig. 1) . These results indicated that viral proliferation was faster in midgut oral than in midgut injected. In addition, we also found that 48 hpi was critical time point when BmNPV copy numbers showed a significant difference between resistant strain BC9 and susceptible stain P50. Identification of Bmp38 and BmS6K, and Bioinformatics Analysis