Fibroin Secondary Structure, Mechanical Performance, and Sericin Composition of Silk Produced by Indigenous Uzbek Bombyx mori Strains Under Variable Rearing Temperature Regimes: A Comparative FTIR, XRD, and Tensile Study

Background: Uzbekistan holds one of the world's oldest and most productive sericulture traditions, yet the physicochemical and mechanical properties of silk produced by its indigenous Bombyx mori strains have not been systematically characterised under controlled rearing conditions. Rearing temperature is a primary environmental variable that influences larval metabolism, cocoon architecture, and ultimately the structural properties of silk fibroin, the core protein conferring silk's outstanding mechanical characteristics. No study has quantified the combined effect of strain genotype and rearing temperature on the β-sheet crystallinity, molecular secondary structure, and uniaxial tensile properties of Uzbek silk in an integrated analytical framework.