Validation of tWO novel primers for THE promising amplification of the mitogenomic Cytochrome c Oxidase subunit I (COI) barcoding region in Artemia aff. sinica (Branchiopoda, Anostraca)

ABSTRACT Due to the lack of a taxonomic key for the identification of Artemia species, molecular markers have been increasingly used for phylogenetic studies. The mt COI marker is a regularly considered marker for the molecular systematics of Artemia populations. The proposed universal and specific primers have mostly failed to amplify the Artemia aff. sinica mt COI marker, and on the whole, the successfully amplified products of the PCR were inefficient, primarily through the representation of poly-peak or incomplete sequences. We presumed that if a forward primer could be developed regarding the joint regions of the last part of the previous gene (tRNA Tyr ) and the beginning of the target gene mt COI , the sequence could be relevant to the target-sequence of mt COI . Thus, here, we describe a new set of primers, which could be used to amplify the mt COI barcoding region of Artemia aff. sinica Cai, 1989, with a high performance of sequencing. The new primer set worked well also for other Artemia bisexual species, as well as for parthenogenetic populations. It is recommended that joint regions between the previous/next gene(s) and the target marker, could be aimed at when designing specific primers for other markers and taxa.