E-Paper
And now silk wins ?Ahimsa?!
OWING TO its unique property, one variety of the silk has won a name ?ahimsa.? Though not official, the name has spread as a ?word of mouth? among silk scientists.
OWING TO its unique property, one variety of the silk has won a name ‘ahimsa.’ Though not official, the name has spread as a ‘word of mouth’ among silk scientists.
Eri, is the biological name. But due to its unique property, the pupa in the cocoon remains alive even after unreeling silk. Reason: The cocoon is made up of discontinuous fibre, which allows moth in it to emerge without boiling, whereas in other varieties, the moth gets killed after boiling.
The name is not official, but has spread as a word of mouth due to this unique property, said Prof K P Gopinathan of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. He was in the city to deliver a lecture on “Developmental Paradigm for the silk glands in the Mulberry silkworm Bombyx Mori: Are they different from the salivary glands?
Other varieties of silk are: Tasar, Moga, Bombyx Mori (mulberry). Bomyx mori is the most popular silk, and is generally found between China and North East portion of the country. This is highly domesticated in India, and India was the second largest producers of silk after China.
The institute developed veterinary vaccine of the silk worm, but is awaiting its commercialization.
“Efforts are on to commercialise vaccine, but it would take some time, as nobody has yet come forward” said the scientist. Human growth hormone has also been developed with the help of silkworm, added the scientist. About the quality of the silk a cocoon if unreeled would result into a kilometer length of the silk, with 20 per cent of increase and decrease.
The main usage of silk is being done in application of biotechnology as seen in the development of vaccine. “Many more projects are being taken up in direction,” said the scientist.
On the second day of the symposium of the All India Cell Biology conference a brain storming session on comparative and functional genomics was held. The session was chaired by Dr C M Gupta, director of CDRI and ITRC. The plenary lecture was delivered by Prof M R S Rao from molecular biology and genetics unit of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore on the topic entitled “Meiotic Recombination of hotspots: some properties and determinants.”
The invited lecture on “Identifying the role of Entamoeba histolytica in which genome reduplication takes place without cell division.
