Noncoding regions of the chloroplast (cpDNA) and mitochondrial (mtDNA) genomes are commonly used in plant phylogenetic and population studies. Consensus primers, which are homologous to most coding regions, but amplify variable noncoding regions, are very useful for this purpose. However, high genetic diversity of plants poses a problem in developing molecular methods that require conserved DNA sequences between species.This chapter describes the protocol for designing PCR primers suitable for analysis of closely related plant species. As an example, we used PCR primer design for cpDNA noncoding regions of the rye (Secale).
Keywords: Noncoding sequences; Primer design; Related species; Species identification; cpDNA1; mtDNA.
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