Twenty-seven low-copy nuclear primers for (Lauraceae): A Tertiary relict species in East Asia.

PREMISE OF THE STUDY

To investigate a more detailed evolutionary history of (Lauraceae) and other species, polymorphic low-copy nuclear primers were developed.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Unigenes of the transcriptome greater than 800 bp in length were randomly chosen for initial design of 168 primers. Agarose gel electrophoresis and Sanger sequencing were used to select low-copy nuclear genes. Twenty-seven primers were obtained and were used to investigate genetic diversity in 90 individuals from 24 populations. The nucleotide diversity ranged from 2.11 × 10 to 8.99 × 10, and haplotype diversity ranged from 0.57 to 0.97. These primers were also cross-amplified in , , , and ; up to 15 primers were successfully amplified in these related species.

CONCLUSIONS

This methodology is effective for development of low-copy nuclear primers. The 27 primers developed here will be useful for evolutionary studies of and other species.