Development of a Mitochondrial Marker for Distinguishing Between <i>Ulva linza</i> and <i>Ulva prolifera</i>

The green tide is the biggest ecological disaster in Yellow Sea in recent decades, and the species composition has varied from year to year. The ITS (internal transcribed spacer) sequence combined with 5S rDNA spacer are the mainstream molecular markers for green macroalgae. The former can perfectly...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rui Zhai, Chengnuo Tang, Shuying Wang, Jing Ma, Xinshu Li, Guoqiang Chen, Juntian Xu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-03-01
Series:Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/13/4/632
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Summary:The green tide is the biggest ecological disaster in Yellow Sea in recent decades, and the species composition has varied from year to year. The ITS (internal transcribed spacer) sequence combined with 5S rDNA spacer are the mainstream molecular markers for green macroalgae. The former can perfectly distinguish the majority of <i>Ulva</i> spp. except the <i>LPP</i> (<i>Ulva linza–procera–prolifera</i>) complex, and the latter is used to distinguish <i>U. linza</i> and <i>U. prolifera</i> exactly based on the former. However, in practice, 5S rDNA spacer is difficult to amplify perfectly with universal primers, and this ultimately affects the experimental process. For this reason, we developed a stable mitochondrial marker for the distinction between <i>U. linza</i> and <i>U. prolifera</i>. The phylogenetic tree based on the mitochondrial <i>rps2</i> (ribosomal protein S2) gene fragment can distinguish the <i>LPP</i> complex into two clades: <i>U. linza</i> and <i>U. prolifera.</i> Therefore, we concluded that the mitochondrial marker can be a great substitute for 5S primers to distinguish <i>U. linza</i> and <i>U. prolifera.</i>
ISSN:2077-1312