Abstract
THE mutant lemon of the silkworm is characteristically yellow in colour, accumulating a fluorescent pigment, xanthopterin-B1, in the skin. Extract of the fat body of the wild-type silkworm converts this pigment into a non fluorescent product1. There is some evidence to support the view that xanthopterin-B1 is identical with sepiapterin2, which is known to be reduced, in the presence of reduced nicotinamide dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), by a folate reductase from chicken liver and Drosophila3,4.
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MATSUBARA, M., TSUSUE, M. & AKINO, M. Occurrence of Two Different Enzymes in the Silkworm, Bombyx mori, to reduce Folate and Sepiapterin. Nature 199, 908–909 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/199908a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/199908a0
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