Genetic Variability Within and Among Three Ecoraces of the Tasar Silkworm Antheraea mylitta Drury, as Revealed by ISSR and RAPD Markers

Genetic diversity within and between populations of Antheraea mylitta Drury was studied using thirty individuals from three ecoraces using 12 ISSR and 10 RAPD primers. Rally, Daba and Modal ecoraces were collected from Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa states of India respectively. The ISSR and RAPD primers generated $94.7\%$ and $95.6\%$ polymorphism among the 30 individuals. The cluster analysis grouped these individuals according to their ecorace. The intra-ecoracial heterozygosity estimated with ISSR markers were $0.123{\pm}0.18,\;0.169{\pm}0.17\;and\;0.214{\pm}0.17$ respectively for Modal, Raily and Daba ecoraces. Like wise, with RAPD markers the intraecoracial heterozygosity was $0.17{\pm}0.22$ in Modal, $0.229{\pm}0.17$ in Raily and $0.23{\pm}0.19$ in Daba ecoraces. However, the significantly low genetic differentiation (GST) (0.182 for ISSR and 0.161 for RAPD) and the high gene flow (Nm) (2.249 for ISSR and 2.60 for RAPD markers) among the ecoraces revealed that the amount of genetic diversity present among the ecoraces is not significant enough to make drastic genetic drifts among these ecoraces in the near future.