Molecular Phylogeny of Silk Producing Insects Based on Internal Transcribed Spacer DNA1

Abstract

Silk moths are the best studied silk secreting insects and belong to the families Bombycidae and Saturniidae. The phylogenetic relationship between eleven silk producing insects was analyzed using the complete DNA sequence of the internal transcribed spacer DNA 1 locus. The PCR amplification and sequence analysis showed variation in length ranging from 138 bp (Antheraea polyphemus) to 911 bp (Hyalopora cecropia). Microsatellite sequences were found and was be used to distinguish Saturniidae and Bombycidae members. The nucleotide sequences were aligned manually and used for construction of phylogenetic trees based on Maximum parsimony and Maximum likelihood methods. The topology in both the approaches yielded a similar tree that supports the ancestral position of the Antheraea assama.