Haemolymph protein profiles in allatectomy-induced trimolters resemble those of a recessive trimolting mutant of the silkworm, Bombyx mori

Two types of artificial trimolters named A and B were induced by excising the corpora allata from the normal tetramolter of Bombyx mori at the periods before and after, respectively, the third molt. By using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, these trimolters were analysed for the banding patterns of haemolymph proteins at their final (fourth) instar. A feature resembling that of the last (fifth) instar of the normal tetramolter, i.e. with an increasing difference in content of the female-specific protein (FL), was found to occur. However, this was preceded by a feature of the penultimate instar of the normal tetramolter, i.e. with a low content of haemolymph proteins without sexual differences. The trimolter-B exhibited less distinct differences in FL content than the trimolter-A. These patterns of haemolymph proteins in the allatectomy-induced trimolters were similar to those of the recessive trimolter mutant rt.