Comparative Analysis of Nucleotide Sequence and Codon Usage of Arylphorin Gene Cloned from Four Silk-Producing Insects and Their Molicular Phylogenetics

To determine phylogenetic relatedness of four silk-producing silkmoths (B. mori, B. mandarina, A. yamamai and A. pernyi), internal coding region of arylphorin which is a storage protein in hemolymph protein of insects were amplified by polymerase chain reaction and then sequenced and compared each other. The nucleotide composition was biased toward adenine and thymine(59% A+T) and a strong bias for use of C in the third position of codons was found for Phe and Tyr. Together TTC(Phe) and TAC(Tyr) account for about 16.8% (10 for TTC and 8 for TAC) of all codon usage. The nucleotide similarity of arylphorin gene from B. mori showed 99%, 98% and 97% homology with those of B. mandarina, A. yamamai and A. pernyi, respectively. Also, the nucleotide sequence of arylphorin gene from B. mandarina showed 98% and 97% homology with those of A. yamamai and A.pernyi, respectively. Between A. yamamai and A. pernyi, the sequence homology was 97%. The deduced amino acid sequences in B. mori, B. mandarina and A. yamamai showed almost 99% homology. Although the aryphorin gene provided insufficient variability among the four insect species, A UPGMA tree is generated that supported the monophyly of silk-producing insects, with M. sexta placed basal to it. It is suggest that silk-producing insects have a close relationship and a homogeneous genetic background from comparison with those of other insects.