Five diverse strains of the native Iranian silkworm Bombyx mori were assessed using the method of simple sequence repeat anchored polymerase chain reaction (SSR-anchored PCR) or Inter-SSR-PCR (ISSR-PCR). Samples (30 larvae from 3rd day of 5th instar for each population) were collected from Silkworm Research Institute (Rasht-Pasikhan). DNA was extracted from sericigene glands, employing modified Suzuki et al. (1972) method (phenol-chloroform). A set of three 5'-anchored repeat primers were amplified to a total of 211 bands out of which 208 (%98.58) were exhibited as polymorphic. A dendrogram, constructed using the UPGMA method (Popgene software) revealed two distinct groups. Maximum unbiased genetic distance was observed between Pink and Gilani, while minimum was between Gilani and Baghdadi. Gilani and Baghdadi stood in one individual group. Genetic diversity average for total population was 0.3575. Maximum polymorphism was seen in Khorasani while minimum was observed in Limon and Baghdadi. The results suggest that ISSR-PCR method is potential of a high for study of genetic diversity and as a useful mapping tool in research related to silkworm.
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