Abstract

The silkworm, Bombyx mori has been used to study numerous biological phenomena including innate immune response. B. mori could be infected by various pathogens such as bacteria, fungi and virus. After infection, these microorganisms induce different types of immune response, including humoral immune responses which secrete antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) into the hemolymph and cellular immune responses which engulfed invading microorganisms by plasmatocytes. Meanwhile, B. mori could be also efficiently killed by infection with human pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes or Serratia marcescens when these bacterial are injected into the blood. It can now be used as an animal model for bacterial infection study. Here, we will review our current knowledge on molecular mechanisms of antimicrobial peptides production as well as recent progress made in the field of innate immunity in B.mori.

Key word: Bombyx mori, innate immune response, Toll/IMD pathway, phagocytosis.