A possible role of 20-hydroxyecdysone in embryonic development of the silkworm Bombyx mori.

It has been well established that eggs of insects, including those of the silkworm Bombyx mori, contain various ecdysteroids and the amounts of these ecdysteroids fluctuate during embryonic development. In order to know the function of egg ecdysteroids in embryonic development of B. mori, we examined the biological activities of various egg ecdysteroids by in vitro ligand-binding assay and bioassay using B.