线粒体DNA(mtDNA)属母系遗传,进化速率较核基因快且基因组结构相对简单,已作为理想的分子标记广泛应用于昆虫群体遗传学及分子系统学等研究。本文对蚕类昆虫线粒体DNA在分子水平上的最新研究进展进行了较详细的阐述,重点介绍了蚕类昆虫线粒体基因组的组成及特征、mtDNA克隆与多态性及在蚕类昆虫分子系统学研究中的应用等。
Mitochondrial DNA has the characteristics of fast evolution and maternal inheritance and has been wildly used as a genetic marker in studies of population genetics,phylogeny and molecular evolution in insects.The genome structure,organization and polymorphism of the mtDNA is described.In addition,we summarize recent progress using mtDNA to elucidate the phylogeny and molecular evolution of the silkmoth.