Does this mean they have the same genes? If they are homologous, can I use the same PCR primers?
Hello Mohammad.
The answer you are looking for is contained in your same question: "homologous in structure and function". It means that the structure and the function of the gene is the same to that of other species genes, but it doesn't means they share their sequence too.
Basically the similarity is given by two factors: the genetic closeness between two organism (e.g. Solanum lycopesicum, Solanum tuberosum), and how the gene is conserved (e.g. genes involved in fundamental processes, like glycolysis).
Unfortunately plant, fungi and animals are really different. I really don't think you can use the same PCR primers to amplify some sequence.
By the way, up to now there are a lot of sequenced organisms. I suggest you to make a research on the internet and find the closest sequenced organism to your species and try to design some primers in the most conserved region of the gene of your interest.
I hope this will help you
Based on the sequence alignment of homologous genes from various sources you can design degenerate pimers which should amplify a part of your gene. You can then use RACE (Rapid amplification of cDNA ends) to get a full length DNA.
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