Analyzing genetic relationships in Bombyx mori using intersimple sequence repeat amplification.

Intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) amplification was used to analyze genetic relationships among silkworm, Bombyx mori L., strains. Nineteen primers containing simple sequence repeat (SSR) motifs were tested for amplification on a panel of 42 strains, representative of the diversity of silkworm germplasm; 12 of the primers amplified distinct, reproducible bands. The primers amplified a total of 108 bands, of which 85 (78.7%) were polymorphic. The ISSR results suggested that within the dinucleotide class, the poly(CA) motif was more common than the poly(CT) motif. The ISSR amplification pattern was used to group the silkworm strains into seven subclusters based on their origin in an unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic average cluster analysis by using Nei's genetic distance. Seven major ecotypic silkworm groups were analyzed. Principal component analysis of the ISSR data supported the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic average clustering. Therefore, ISSR amplification is a valuable method for determining genetic variability among silkworm varieties. This efficient genetic fingerprinting technique should be useful for characterizing the large numbers of silkworm strains held in national and international germplasm centers.