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Effects of the Space Environment on Silkworm Development Time

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Life Science in Space: Experiments on Board the SJ-10 Recoverable Satellite

Part of the book series: Research for Development ((REDE))

Abstract

As aviation technology has developed, there has been more emphasis on exploitation and utilization of the space frontier. The lepidopteran insect Bombyx mori has advantages, including small body size, light weight, short life cycle, and well-characterized genetics, when used as a model for biological investigations in space compared with other animals. In preparation for experiments in space, we carried out a simulation experiment, and the number of embryos and the culture temperature and humidity were optimized. The silkworm incubator was launched with China’s SJ-10 recoverable microgravity experimental satellite and was in orbit for 12 days and 15 h in 2016. The embryos were cultured in space. Images of the silkworm embryos were obtained during flight. The embryos cultured in space hatched properly after returning to the ground, but silkworm larva obtained from cultures grown on the SJ-10 satellite grew more rapidly than the ground control group. Analyses of subsequent generations and genome, transcriptome, and proteome analyses are ongoing.

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Abbreviations

BmNPV:

B. mori nuclear polyhedrosis virus

cDNA:

Coding DNA

CRISPR:

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats

ISS:

International Space Station

mRNA:

Messenger RNA

RNAi:

RNA interference

TALENs:

Transcription activator-like effector nucleases

ZFNs:

Zinc finger nucleases

ZFP:

Zinc finger proteins

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA04020414) and National Science Foundation of China (U1738110).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Insect Developmental and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Zulian Liu, Zhiqian Li, Yongping Huang & Anjiang Tan

  2. Faculty of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    Peng Shang

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  1. Zulian Liu
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  2. Zhiqian Li
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  3. Peng Shang
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  4. Yongping Huang
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  5. Anjiang Tan
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Correspondence to Anjiang Tan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Enkui Duan

  2. Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Mian Long

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Liu, Z., Li, Z., Shang, P., Huang, Y., Tan, A. (2019). Effects of the Space Environment on Silkworm Development Time. In: Duan, E., Long, M. (eds) Life Science in Space: Experiments on Board the SJ-10 Recoverable Satellite. Research for Development. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6325-2_5

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