Genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship as revealed by inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) polymorphism in the different Ecoraces of Indian tropical tasar silkworm Antheraea mylitta drury

摘要

The tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta D., is a semi-domesticated (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae), wild sericigenous insect. The tropical tasar silkworm is cultivated in the dense, humid, tropical forests of eastern, central and southern India. It is feeds on eight primary food plants. The primary food plants are Terminalia Arjuna, Terminalia tomentosa, Shorea robusta, Lagerstroemia parviflora, L. speciosa, L. indica, Zizyphus and Hardwickia binata. The present studies of genetic relations based on phylogeny of tasar ecoraces using co-dominant microsatellites, further provides molecular evidence of the fact that climatic factors, the changes at DNA level and its wide range of distribution in varied geographic conditions would lead to genetic divergence ultimately leading to the formation of new ecoraces.