Studies on the nucleic acids and their correlation with economic characters of silkworm bombyx mori l

Four pure mulberry silkworm breeds viz., Pure Mysore, Nistari, NB4D2 & CSR2 and two hybrid (Pure Mysore x CSR2 and Nistari x NB4D2 ) silkworms were selected for the present study. The total DNA and RNA present in the mid gut tissue was estimated during entire fifth instar with a regular interval of 24 h, and the average concentration was estimated. The commercial characters viz., fecundity, larval weight, larval duration, cocoon weight, shell weight, shell ratio, filament length, denier and renditta were selected. The average concentration of DNA and RNA were subjected to regression analysis against selected commercial characters to know the level and kind of correlation between them. The results of regression analysis between DNA and larval duration as well as filament length exhibited moderately high positive level of correlation coefficient. The RNA also exhibited the same trend with larval duration, filament length and denier only. The RNA/DNA revealed moderately high positive correlation with larval duration, shell weight, shell ratio and denier only