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Mutant Worms
Japanese scientists say they have genetically engineered silkworms to produce a specific color. In nature, silkworm cocoon colors vary from white, yellow, straw, salmon, pink and green. The colors in the silk are from natural pigments absorbed when the silkworms eat mulberry leaves. Japanese researchers have observed in silkworms that produce white silk that the "yellow blood", or Y gene, was mutated. A segment of DNA had been deleted. The Y gene enables silkworms to extract carotenoids, yellow-colored compounds, from mulberry leaves.
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