TY - JOUR T1 - Melanism patches up the defective cuticular morphological traits through promoting the up-regulation of cuticular protein-coding genes in <em>Bombyx mori</em> JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/155002 SP - 155002 AU - Liang Qiao AU - Ri-xin Wang AU - You-jin Hao AU - Hai Hu AU - Gao Xiong AU - Song-zhen He AU - Jiang-bo Song AU - Kun-peng Lu AU - James Mallet AU - Ya-qun Xin AU - Bin Chen AU - Fang-yin Dai Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/06/27/155002.abstract N2 - Melanin and cuticular proteins are important cuticle components in insect. The cuticle defects caused by the loss function of cuticular protein-encoding genes could hinder melanin deposition. However, the effects of melanin variation on cuticular protein-encoding genes and the corresponding morphological traits associated with these genes remain largely unknown. Using Bombyx mori as a model, we showed that the level of melanism during larval cuticle pigmentation correlated positively with the expression of cuticular protein-encoding genes. This correlation stemmed from the simultaneous induction of these genes by the melanin precursors. More importantly, the effect of the melanism background on the cuticle induced the up-regulation of other functionally redundant cuticular protein-encoding genes to rescue the morphological and adaptive defects caused by the dysfunction of some mutated cuticular proteins, and the restorative ability increased with increasing melanism levels, which gives a novel evidence that melanism enhances insect adaptability. These findings deepen our understanding of the interactions among cuticle components, as well as their importance in the stabilization of the normal morphology and function of the cuticle. ER -