Flavoprotein in the Egg of the Silkworm Bombyx mori

Abstract

THE eggs of a developing silkworm of Nippon 124 × China 124 strain were crushed at regular intervals directly on to Whatman No. 1 paper and chromato-graphed in one or two dimensions. The solvents used were 2,4-lutidine-n-butanol-water (4 : 1 : 5), n-butanol-acetic acid-water (4 : 1 : 5), 5 per cent sodium citrate and n-propanol–1 per cent ammonia (2 : 1). From the results it was demonstrated that riboflavin and a large quantity of flavin mononucleotide (FMN) were contained in the eggs throughout their development, but flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) was detected only in the egg on the day before hatching and in the newly hatched larva.