Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (KBLB)

[first mike]

Just spoke to Ben,who confirmed from Kim, that generational decreases in the percentage of spider silk maintained by the silkworms HAS NOT been the case,with KBLB's spider silks.

(This in response to a mention in anarticle quoting R. Lewis that SSP percentages in silkworms declined in subsequent filial generations.)

This has never been an issue with KBLB's transgenic silkworm lines.
The problem seen by Randy Lewis (and perhaps others) is caused by a problem with earlier / cruder transgenic vehicles.
The transcriptase tended to remain active within the genome causing random mutations for several generations which had to be weeded out of each filial generation, but which such selection decreased over time.

One of the major improvements made by Malcolm Fraser with his (PiggyBAC) transposon was that such unwanted remnant activity was greatly reduced.
This was never an issue with the ZFN CompoZr agents as they use a different mechanism.

In any event, such genetic drift should be removed over the course of a dozen or so generations, many fewer than the Monster Worms(TM) have had, FOR THE TRANSGENIC PART OF THE GENOME where culling can be done on the basis of eye color or fluorescent pigments, so that the MS line is purely homozygotic with respect to the Spider Silk genes.

For the native parts of the genome there are no such markers, and the worms are not homozygotic as a whole (over the entire genome).

The latest testing and selection process announced by KBLB extends these selective breeding techniques to the genome as a whole (with respect to Silk production and consistency and strength).
This new process will / would improve the quality and consistency of ANY silkworm silk,not just MS.

Mike L.