Open AccessA red alga‐specific phycoerythrin gene for biodiversity surveys of callithamnioid red algae
Author(s) -
YANG EUN CHAN,
BOO SUNG MIN
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
molecular ecology notes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1471-8286
pISSN - 1471-8278
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-8286.2005.01216.x
Subject(s) - phycoerythrin , biology , nonsynonymous substitution , biodiversity , algae , red algae , gene , gene cluster , polymerase chain reaction , genetics , botany , genome , ecology , flow cytometry
We introduce a photosynthetic pigment‐encoding phycoerythrin gene, consisting of alpha ( cpeA ) and beta ( cpeB ) units that can be used for biodiversity surveys of callithamnioid red algae. A set of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers were designed to amplify an approximately 1‐kb fragment of the gene from 14 taxa. These have been proven useful in isolating the gene from samples mixed with diatoms. Pairwise distance and synonymous and nonsynonymous nucleotide substitution rates of the cpeA and cpeB regions are described. This is the first study to examine the phycoerythrin sequences for use in red alga biodiversity surveys.