Primers for the amplification of nuclear introns in sea stars of the family Asteriidae

摘要

We describe polymerase chain reaction primers that consistently amplify three intron regions of approximately 2 kb in total length for two nuclear protein-coding genes (ATP synthase beta subunit and elongation factor-1 alpha subunit) in sea stars of the family Asteriidae. The introns are moderately polymorphic at the species level (average within-species percentage of site differences = 0.42%, range 0-1.44%), are evolving at about 29% as fast as mitochondrial sequences in the same species and are alignable at the genus or family level, making them suitable for phylogenetic and population genetic analyses.