Good news: we can identify Ulva species erupted in the Yellow Sea more easily and cheaply now

• Published in: Conservation genetics resources Vol. 12; no. 3; pp. 447 - 449
• Main Authors: Liu, Jinlin, Zhao, Xiaohui, Kang, Xinyu, Zhuang, Minmin, Ding, Xiaowei, Zhao, Lijuan, Wen, Qinlin, Zhu, Ying, Gu, Kai, Bao, Qunjing, Yang, Xiaoqian, Zhang, Jianheng, He, Peimin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal Genetics and Genomics; Biodiversity; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Conservation Biology/Ecology; Ecology; Evolutionary Biology; Gene amplification; Genomes; Life Sciences; Methods and Resources Article; Mitochondria; Phylogeny; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Species; TrnL gene; Ulva prolifera; Yellow Sea; rps2; Green tide; L; Yellow Sea; DNA barcoding
• ISSN: 1877-7252; 1877-7260
• DOI: 10.1007/s12686-019-01114-x

The green tide in the Yellow Sea which has been erupting continuously for 13 years, has brought a huge disaster to the ecosystem. There are four Ulva species from the early stage of green tide in the Yellow Sea usually: Ulva prolifera , Ulva compressa , Ulva flexuosa and Ulva linza . With the passage of time, the green tide floating to Qingdao mainly consists of Ulva prolifera . Molecular biological identification of species during the outbreak of green tide in the Yellow Sea has always been a focus of surveillance, but the ‘ITS-5S’ test system we have been using for a long time is not perfect. Through analyzing the mitochondrial genome of species published by our laboratory and combining with the other mitochondrial genome data, we find that the rps2- trn L gene spacer sequences can accurately distinguish the Ulva species of the green tide. After gene amplification and the construction of Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic tree, we find that the rps2- trn L gene spacer sequence is completely suitable for the barcode sequence of common Ulva species. This discovery could save researchers a lot of money and time, also, provide basic data for future green tide prevention and control.