author(s)
E Arockia Lenin

abstract
To study the genetic and evolutionary relationships of domestic and wild species of silkworms (Insecta: Lepidoptera), the mitochondrial DNA sequences of Cytochrome Oxidase subunit - I gene of thirteen wild silk worms and one domesticated silk worm were subjected to MEGA 5.1and ProtParamExPASy tool. Phylograms were constructed using Maximum Likelihood, Maximum Parsimony and Neighbor-Joining methods. The results clearly revealed the genetic affinity and phylogenetic status of wild and domestic silk worms through phylogenetic analysis. The results were also confirmed with additional molecular parameters such as nucleotide composition, amino acid composition and evolutionary distance analyses.