Evaluation of Mulberry germplasm for morphological characters and silkworm (Bombyx Mori L.) rearing parameters

Abstract

Evaluation of eighty mulberry accessions was carried out during 2010-12. No single accession was superior in respect of all the traits studied during rainy, winter and newlinesummer season. Leaf yield per plant was recorded maximum in SB-21 during rainy newline(3452.44g/plant), winter (3148.07g/plant) and summer (2915.72g/plant) season. Genetic newlineparameters viz., PCV, GCV and heritability were high for most of the growth and yield newlineparameters. Significant and positive association at both phenotypic and genotypic levels were recorded for leaf yield per plant and also for most of the yield contributing traits. Based on performance for leaf yield and different growth parameters for eighty newlineaccessions, thirteen mulberry accessions were selected as elite. These elite accessions newlinewere studied for biochemical analysis and rearing performance with silkworm hybrid newlinePM×CSR2. Among the thirteen accessions, TB-21 contained higher nitrogen (4.23%), newlinecrude protein (26.43%), protein (22.67%), total amino acids (315.57mg/g), total newlinecarbohydrates (24.75%), sugar (11.92%) and starch (15.24%). Whereas, significantly newlinehigh total chlorophyll content was recorded in TB-21(3.39mg/g), crude fibre in leaves of newlineME-27 (13.07%) and total ash was significantly maximum in leaves of TB-21 (12.65%). Rearing performance study with PM×CSR2 larvae indicated that TB-21 recorded newlinesignificantly maximum mature larval weight (32.63 g/10 larvae), single cocoon weight newline(1.79g), shell weight (0.36g), shell ratio (19.98%), silk productivity (3.97cg/day), silk filament length (823.65m) and silk filament weight (0.27g). Significantly maximum denier (2.96) was recorded when silkworms were reared on leaves of SB-21. TB-21 recorded high raw silk per cent (14.94%). Renditta was significantly low (6.69) when newlinesilkworms were reared upon the leaves of TB-21. Among the eighty accessions evaluated for different growth and yield parameters, newlineSB-21 was superior followed by ME-18 and MI-79.