Hornet silk proteins in the cocoons produced by different Vespa species inhabiting Japan

Abstract We compared the components of hornet silk – a fibrous protein occurring in the cocoons produced by hornet larvae – among 6 species of the genus Vespa inhabiting Japan: V. simillima , V. dybowskii , V. crabro , V. mandarinia , V. ducalis , and V. analis . From the sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), N-terminal amino acid sequence analysis, and 5'-RACE, it was found that the major component proteins composing hornet silk could be divided into 6 groups. Among these 6 proteins, 5 proteins were common to the hornet silks of all 6 Vespa species. The SDS-PAGE major band corresponding to the remaining protein was observed only in the hornet silks of V. mandarinia and V. ducalis . This correspondence between V. mandarinia and V. ducalis can probably be explained in terms of the phylogenetic relationships of the Vespa species.