Genetic analysis of Indian tasar silkmoth (Antheraea mylitta) populations.
Indian tasar silkmoth, Antheraea mylitta is an economically important wild silkmoth species distributed across India. A number of morphologically and ethologically well-defined ecotypes are known for this species that differ in their primary food plant specificity. Most of these ecotypes do not interbreed in nature, but are able to produce offspring under captive conditions. Microsatellite markers were developed for A. mylitta, and out of these, ten well-behaved microsatellite loci were used to analyze the population structure of different ecoraces. A total of 154 individual moths belonging to eight different ecoraces, were screened at each locus. Hierarchical analysis of population structure using Analysis of MOlecular VAriance (AMOVA) revealed significant structuring (FST = 0.154) and considerable inbreeding (FIS = 0.505). A significant isolation by distance was also observed. The number of possible population clusters was investigated using distance method, Bayesian algorithm and self organization maps (SOM). The first two methods revealed two distinct clusters, whereas the SOM showed the different ecoraces not to be clearly differentiated. These results suggest that although there is a large degree of phenotypic variation among the different ecoraces of A. mylitta, genetically they are not very different, and the phenotypic differences may largely be a result of their respective ecology.
Centre of Excellence for Genetics and Genomics of Silkmoths, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Tuljaguda, Nampally, Hyderabad 500001, India.|Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
Saikat
S
Chakraborty
Centre of Excellence for Genetics and Genomics of Silkmoths, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Tuljaguda, Nampally, Hyderabad 500001, India.
M
M
Muthulakshmi
Centre of Excellence for Genetics and Genomics of Silkmoths, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Tuljaguda, Nampally, Hyderabad 500001, India.
Deena
D
Vardhini
Muga silkworm seed organization and Eri silkworm seed organization, Central Silk Board, Guwahati 781006, India.
P
P
Jayaprakash
Centre of Excellence for Genetics and Genomics of Silkmoths, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Tuljaguda, Nampally, Hyderabad 500001, India.
J
J
Nagaraju
Centre of Excellence for Genetics and Genomics of Silkmoths, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Tuljaguda, Nampally, Hyderabad 500001, India.
K P
KP
Arunkumar
D000818:Animals; D012831:Bombyx / Q000235:genetics*; D056426:Genetic Loci; D014644:Genetic Variation; D007194:India; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008957:Models, Genetic