Common strategies in silkworm disease resistance breeding research

The silkworm, which is considered a model invertebrate organism, was the first insect used for silk production in human history and has been utilized extensively throughout its domestication. However, sericulture has been plagued by various pathogens that have caused significant economic losses. To enhance the resistance of a host to its pathogens,numerous strategies have been developed. For instance, gene‐editing techniques have been applied to a wide range of organisms, effectively solving a variety of experimental problems. This review focuses on several common silkworm pests and their pathogenic mechanisms, with a particular emphasis on breeding for disease resistance to control multiple types of silkworm diseases. The review also compares the advantages and disadvantages of transgenic technology and gene‐editing systems. Finally, the paper provides a brief summary of current strategies used in breeding silkworm disease resistance, along with a discussion of the establishment of existing technologies and their future application prospects. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry. Under captive conditions, silkworms as a model invertebrate organism are susceptible to various bacterial, fungal, and viral infections that often inflict serious damage on the silkworm industry. Our review focuses on examples of the use of RNA interference, overexpression and a CRISPR–Cas gene‐editing system in breeding for disease resistance in the control of multiple types of silkworm diseases.