Silks play a crucial role in the survival and reproduction of many insects. Labial glands,
Malpighian tubules, and a variety of dermal glands have evolved to produce these silks. The …

The Gateway® cloning system sets a new trend in molecular biology by addressing the
difficulties of adaptability, efficiency and compatibility of the traditional cloning approaches …

Background Studies have shown that taxonomically restricted genes are significant in
number and important for the evolution of lineage specific traits. Social insects have gained …

Lipases have key roles in insect lipid acquisition, storage and mobilisation and are also
fundamental to many physiological processes underpinning insect reproduction …

Silk, especially spider and insect silk, is a highly versatile biomaterial with potential
applications in biomedicine, materials science, and biomimetic engineering. The primary …

New biological materials for tissue engineering are now being developed using common
genetic engineering capabilities to clone and express a variety of genetic elements that …

In many vertebrates, social interactions and nutrition can affect the colonization of gut
symbionts across generations. In the highly social honey bee, it is unknown to what extent …

This new monograph, Honeybee Nests: Composition, Structure, and Function, was originally
conceived as an extension or revision of an earlier monograph, Honeybees and Wax: An …

Insect silks are secreted from diverse gland types; this chapter deals with the silks produced
by labial glands of Holometabola (insects with pupa in their life cycle). Labial silk glands are …

Transgenic production of silkworm and spider silks as biomaterials has posed intrinsic
problems due to the large size and repetitive nature of the silk proteins. In contrast the silk of …