Linkage analysis of the visible mutations Sel and Xan of Bombyx mori (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae) using SSR markers

Wild type silkworm larvae have opaque white skin, whereas the mutants Sel (Sepialumazine) and Xan (Xanthous) are yellow-skinned. Previous genetic analysis indicated that Sel and Xan are on established linkage groups 24 (0.0) and 27 (0.0), respectively. However, in constructing a molecular linkage map using simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci, we found that the two mutations were linked. To confirm this finding, we developed a set of SSR markers and used them to score reciprocal backcross populations. Taking advantage of the lack of crossing-over in female silkworms, we found that the progeny of backcrosses between F1 females and males of the parental strains (BC1F) of the two visible mutations had the same inheritance patterns linked to the same SSR markers. This indicated that the two visible mutations belonged to the same chromosome. To confirm this finding, we tested for independent assortment by crossing Sel and Xan marker strains with each other to obtain F1 and F2 populations. Absence of the expected wild type class among 5000 F2 progeny indicated that the two visible mutations were located on the same linkage group. We carried out recombination analysis for each mutation by scoring 190 progeny of backcrosses between F1 males and parental females (BC1M) and constructed a linkage map for each strain. The results indicated that the Sel gene was 12 cM from SSR marker S2404, and the Xan gene was 7.03 cM from SSR marker S2407. To construct a combined SSR map and to avoid having to discriminate the two similar dominant mutations in heterozygotes, we carried out recombination analysis by scoring recessive wild type segregants of F2 populations for each mutation. The results showed that the Sel and Xan genes were 13 cM and 13.7 cM from the S2404 marker, respectively, consistent with the possibility that they are alleles of the same locus, which we provisionally assigned to SSR linkage group 24. We also used the F2 recessive populations to construct two linkage groups for the Sel and Xan genes.