Breeding and Genetics of Silkworm and Mulberry (Particularly for B. Sc. - 4th Semester Students)

Abstract

Silkworm has high importance in agriculture and its allied fields. Breeding and Genetics have played an important role to increase domesticated animal production. Also, silkworm genetic, history and present situation of silkworm breeding, as well as mulberry breeding, aims in different fields and selection tools in silkworm breeding, silkworm hybrids, mating systems, and correlation of heritability and other characters in silkworm are reviewed. Sericulture is one of the great inventions of the Chinese people and has become an important cultural and integrated section in the Indian economy as well. As India is the long-lasting center of silk production, ranking on number second in the global production, breeding and genetics of silkworm was highly developed historically and has formed a comprehensive system for breeding and preservation of new varieties. Central Sericulture Germplasm Resource Center (CSGCR) Hosur, India serves as the hub of the genetic stock of mulberry as well as silkworm genotypes. However, silkworm breeding reached a bottleneck recently, because most of the traditional genetic resources have been utilized and silkworm strains have become homogeneous. Meanwhile, sericulture in India meets huge challenges in the 21st century. In recent years, with the development and rapid applications of molecular biology, genomics, transgenes and genome editing, silkworm and mulberry genetics and breeding have entered a new era. In this book, we summarize the development of silkworm and mulberry breeding and genetics, especially the progress and perspective of transgene and genome editing in the genetic engineering of silkworms and mulberry. Mulberry (Morus L.) is an economically important tree being cultivated for its leaves to rear the silkworm, Bombyx mori. Rearing of the silkworm is an art and science popularly known as sericulture; an agro-based cottage industry provides employment to millions in China, India, Korea, Vietnam, etc. Mulberry is a perennial tree that maintains high heterozygosity due to the outbreeding reproductive system. It is recalcitrant to most of the conventional breeding methods, yet considerable improvement has been made in leaf yield and leaf quality. Conventional breeding in mulberry is a tedious, labour intensive, and time taking process, which needs to be complemented with modern biotechnological methods to speed up the process.