RFLP analysis of chromosomal fragments in genetic mosaic strains of Bombyx mori.

Mottled striped (pSm), a genetic mosaic strain for larval body marking of the silkworm, Bombyx mori, contains a small chromosomal fragment generated by breakage near the end of the 2nd chromosome. This fragment carries the striped marking (pS) gene and part of the chorion gene clusters. To determine the structural features of this fragmented chromosome, we studied the organization of the chorion genes on the fragment using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Two of three classes of chorion gene family probes detected RFLPs in the two phenotypes, pSm (p/p/pS), and p (p/p), which had lost the fragment, segregated among the siblings of a mottled striped strain. Although hybridization patterns were basically identical between them, one or two additional bands were always observed associating with the mosaic phenotype (pSm). This suggests that the additional bands correspond to extra copies of chorion genes on the chromosomal fragment, which have a different structure from ones on the intrinsic 2nd chromosomes. Such heterogeneity of chorion genes may have been maintained since the beginning of mosaic induction, due to the absence of recombinational events between the two chromosomes. We are unable to detect any RFLPs by hybridization with the early class of chorion genes, implying that chromosomal breakage might have occurred between the two chorion clusters, Chl-2 and Ch3, which are located approximately 4 cM apart from each other. Based on RFLP analyses for two independent mosaic strains (788 and 872), we postulate a common chromosomal origin with independent breakpoints and construct structural models for the two kinds of chromosomal fragments.