Abstract: The comparison of protein patterns between male and female gonads will not only contribute to the finding of functional proteins related to sexual traits, but also help exploring the regulating mechanism of related genes during the development of gonad. In this study, using two dimensional electrophoresis (2DE) and gel image analysis system, we compared the proteins in the male and female gonads of silkworm at the 2nd day of the pupal stage. A total of 435 protein spots were detected in the 2-DE pattern of male gonad, of which 73 were the specific protein spots, occupying 16.8% of the total. There were 417 protein spots in the 2-DE pattern of female gonad, of which 55 were specific ones, occupying 13.2% of the total. Comparison showed that 362 pairs were matched in the 2-DE patterns of both male and female, with the match percentage as high as 85.0%.  

Key words: Bombyx mori, gonad, protein, 2DE, image analysis