Bombyx mandarina (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae) is generally regarded as the ancestor of the domesticated B. mori. Recently, over 40 mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) mainly from B. mori strains preserved in China and wild individuals of B. mandarina were sequenced to verify the progenitor of B. mori. At this point, we also were curious about the origin and the relationships of Korean silkworms to foreign B. mandarina and B. mori. As a first step, we sequenced the complete mitogenome of the B. mandarina collected in Korea and compared it to pre-exsiting data (37 strains of B. mori and 14 individuals of B. mandarina). The complete mitogenome of B. mandarina was 15,694-bp long, consisted of 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and one non-coding region. The 494-bp long A+T-rich region possessed the highest A/T content (95.3%) than any other region of the genome. Overall, the general mitogenome characteristics of the genus Bombyx species have an identical gene arrangement, similar A/ T content (average 82.3%) and so on. Phylogenetic analysis, however, showed that B. mori and B. mandarina formed a distant group each with the highest nodal support. For more findings of mitogenome characteristics of Bombyx including the Korean B. mandarina and those preserved in Korea more mitogenomes, particularly from Korea, might be needed.

• Min Jee Kim(Department of Applied Biology, Chonnam National University)
• Seong-Ryul Kim(Department of Agricultural Biology, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, RDA)
• Iksoo Kim(Department of Applied Biology, Chonnam National University)