Molecular identification of Chinese cultivated Porphyra (Bangiaceae, Rhodophyta) based on the rDNA internal transcribed spacer-1 sequence and random amplified polymorphic DNA markers

Abstract

Porphyra yezoensis Ueda and P. tenera Kjellman are two common commercial seaweeds cultivated in China, but it is difficult to identify them routinely because they are morphologically and systematically very close. The nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer-1 (ITS-1) region of nine selected Porphyra cultivars from China were sequenced and determined. Combined with some ITS-1 data from GenBank, the phylogenetic analysis inferred from the neighbour-joining method indicated that the Porphyra species in this study exhibited clear taxonomic relationships and could be identified clearly to species. Based on the results, the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique was applied to distinguish 12 Porphyra cultivars, some of which turn out to be different lineages of the same Porphyra species. Eight specific RAPD markers were scored and used to construct a fingerprint that could distinctly identify different Porphyra cultivars. The results suggest that both the rDNA ITS-1 sequence and RAPD markers are useful methods to identify Porphyra cultivars, and may also be valid for phylogenetic and taxonomic studies.

Keywords:

• Molecular identification
• phylogeny
• Porphyra
• RAPD
• rDNA ITS-1

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Shandong Agriculture Seedstocks Project and Knowledge Inovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The authors wish to thank anonymous reviewers for the critical comments and suggestions for the manuscript.

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark