Mutation of a palmitoyltransferase ZDHHC 18-like gene is 1 responsible for the minute wing mutation in the silkworm ( Bombyx mori ) 2

14 Pulpaland adult-stage minute wing (mw) mutants of the silkworm Bombyx mori have 15 much smaller wings than those of the wild type. Herein, we report the genetic and molecular 16 mechanisms underling the formation of the minute wing. Fine mapping and positional cloning 17 revealed that a palmitoyltransferase ZDHHC18-like gene (BmAPP)was responsible for the 18 mw mutation. CRISPR/Cas9 screening of the BmAPP gene in wild-type embryos revealed 19 that a significant proportion of adults had the mw mutation. In an mw mutant strain, u11, a 20 10-bp insertion in the promoter of a novel gene resulted in low-level translation of a protein 21 belonging to the DHHC family. A PiggyBac-based transgenic analysis showed that the 22 promoter induced the expression of aBmAPP gene promoter in the wild type but not the mw 23 mutant. These findings indicate that functional deletion of this gene promoter accounts for the 24 mw mutation in silkworm. The possibility that BmAPP gene is involved in Hippo signaling 25 . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/101618 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Jan. 19, 2017;