• BMB Reports
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.394-399
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• 2008

Multiple sequence alignments of the Bombyx mori fibroin light chain gene (fib-L) from hybrids and from Chinese and Japanese strains demonstrated that 51.6% of the fib-L third intron is conserved. One of these conserved segments, 41 bp long, contains the sequence CGTTATTATACATATT, which is duplicated in the B. mori Nd-$s^D$ mutant. In the present work, electrophoretic mobility assays and computational analyses revealed a major peak of intrinsic bent DNA within the segment that undergoes breakage in the previously-described Nd-$s^D$ mutation. This result suggested that this intrinsically-curved region might mediate DNA cleavage and enhance recombination events in the third intron of the Bombyx mori fib-L gene.