Mitochondrial cox1 and plastid rbcL genes of Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Gracilariaceae, Rhodophyta)

• DOI: 10.1007/s10811-007-9201-8
• Publication Date: 2007-07-20T08:07:08Z
• Authors: Eun Chan Yang; Myung Sook Kim; Paul John L. Gera...; Dinabandhu Sahoo; Jong-Ahm Shin; Sung Min Boo
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; 03 medical and health sciences

The mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene sequence was recently developed for DNA barcoding of red algal species. We determined the 1245 base pairs of the gene from 27 taxa of an agar-producing species, Gracilaria vermiculophylla, and putative relatives and compared the results with rbcL data from the same species. A total of 392 positions (31.5%) were variable, 282 positions (22.6%) were parsimoniously informative, and average sequence divergence was 13% in an ingroup. Within G. vermiculophylla, pairwise divergence of the gene was variable up to 11 bp (0.9%). Seven recognized haplotypes of cox1 tended to be geographically related. In the aligned 1386 bp of rbcL, three haplotypes were recognized. These results suggest that cox1 is a valuable molecular marker within species and will be very useful in haplotype analyses.