The Effect of Heterosis and Inheritance of Quantitative Traits in Silkworm Exposed to Electromagnetic Irradiation

The effect of heterosis was studied in several quantitative traits of clone breed and interbreed silkworm hybrids exposed to electromagnetic irradiation ( = 1.6 cm, power density 700 W/cm²) during postdiapause embryonic development. The influence of the type of reproduction on the manifestation of irradiation effects in the next generation was also examined. In hybrids, the resistance to low-intensity high-frequency irradiation was higher than in the parental forms. Unlike the latter, the hybrids showed no significant modification of the traits after the exposure to electromagnetic irradiation. In the second generation, the modifying effect of irradiation is retained in the case of parthenogenetic silkworm development but not after mating.