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

To explore the evolutionary relationship of Bmp38 and BmS6K, a phylogenic tree was constructed by the neighbor-joining method from p38 and S6K proteins of different species. The phylogenetic tree can be classified into vertebrates and invertebrates. Bmp38 was closely related to Chilo suppressalis and D. plexippus, and BmS6K protein showed close relationship with S. litura and P. rapae ( Fig. 3B and C) . Based on iTRAQ database, Bmp38 and BmS6K were identified as differentially expressed proteins in different silkworm strains P50 (susceptible strain) and BC9 (resistant strain) according to iTRAQ database (Yu et al. 2017b ). Based on iTRAQ database, Bmp38 and BmS6K expressions were upregulated in P50+ and BC9+ infected with BmNPV than P50− and BC9− noninfected. The expression of both proteins was upregulated in resistant strain of silkworm BC9 after BmNPV infection data obtained from iTRAQ database (Table 2) .