Bombyx Eclosion Hormone

Adult eclosion of the silkworm, Bombyx mori, occurs during a specific period of the day under the control of eclosion hormone (EH). Bombyx EH was extracted from the pupal and adult brains (Fugo, et al., 1982), and also the embryos of B. mori (Chen, et al., 1986). In 1985, Bombyx EH was first isolated from the pharate adult heads of B. mori (Nagasawa, et al., 1985). Recently the entire amino acid sequence of Bombyx EH was determined as shown in Fig. 1 through the combination of sequencing the isolated Bombyx EH (Kono, et al., 1987) and cloning the Bombyx EH gene. A monoclonal antibody against the synthetic peptide corresponding to the carboxyl-terminal 13 amino acid residues of Bombyx EH was prepared (Kono, et al., in press).