Genome-wide analysis and identification of Septin gene family in Bombyx mori
The septin gene family is broadly distributed in eukaryotes excluding plants, and conserved GTPase activity. Septins are of multifunctional proteins, participating in cytokinesis, vesicle trafficking, cell cycle regulation and apoptosis, and also involve in the pathogenesis of different diseases including neoplasia, neurodegeneration and pathogen infections. Based on Drosophila melanogaster septin amino acid sequences blasted with Silkworm Genome Database(SilkDB), we found 4 septin genes in Bombyx mori genome. These 4 septin protein's sequences have conserved domains, including G1, G2, G3, G4, G5 and coiled-coil domains. Phylogenesis tree and multiple sequence alignment results indicated that the gene family was highly conserved, B. mori septins were named BmPnut, BmSeptin1, BmSeptin2 and BmSeptin4 based on similarities with D. melanogaster septins. The expression profiles of septins in B. mori were analyzed by searching silkworm microarray date. The results in this study provide a good basis for further studies on functions of septins in B. mori.