The Length of Fibroin Structural Gene Sequences in Bombyx mori DNA

The mRNA that codes for silk fibroin in the silkworm Bombyx mori can be isolated in greater than 90% purity as judged by partial sequence analysis (Suzuki and Brown, 1972). Molecular hybridization experiments using highly purified fibroin mRNA have established that there are one to three genes per haploid complement of DNA in all tissues investigated, including the posterior silk gland where fibroin is synthesized (Suzuki et al., 1972).