Hello, concerning the Mitochondrial molecular markers COI and 16S rDNA, what is the difference between them and which one is the best to use to sequence invertebrate ? Thanks
Both COI and 16S rRNA are mitochondrial genes. For most invertebrate species they are inherited only from the female egg, but a few invertebrates have both male and female mitochondrial lineages.
Article The Complete Female- and Male-Transmitted Mitochondrial Geno...
Mitochondrial DNA on average evolves roughly 10X faster than genes in the cell nucleus, so less length is needed to find some phylogenetic signal for determining evolutionary lineages in closely related organisms such as species of the same genus. Different research "communities" tend to favor different genes for study, so you should search GenBank for organisms related to yours, and see whether there are more COI or more 16S sequences done for your organism of interest.
Both COI and 16S rRNA are mitochondrial genes. For most invertebrate species they are inherited only from the female egg, but a few invertebrates have both male and female mitochondrial lineages.
Article The Complete Female- and Male-Transmitted Mitochondrial Geno...
Mitochondrial DNA on average evolves roughly 10X faster than genes in the cell nucleus, so less length is needed to find some phylogenetic signal for determining evolutionary lineages in closely related organisms such as species of the same genus. Different research "communities" tend to favor different genes for study, so you should search GenBank for organisms related to yours, and see whether there are more COI or more 16S sequences done for your organism of interest.
This will depend on what question you are asking. Are you wanting to use these for a molecular (barcode) identification? Or are you sequencing across different taxa to examine phylogenetic relationships and, if so how different are your taxa likely to be? CoI is the standard gene used in the Barcode of Life (www.boldsystems.org) and it may be more variable (depending on what part of the gene you sequence - see Lunt et al. Insect Mol Biol. 1996 Aug;5(3):153-65) and hence, why it is used in Barcoding. 16S rRNA may be less variable since there are secondary structure constraints here.
Since CoI is protein coding it may be easier to align than rRNA and for more distantly related taxa you may need to use secondary structure information for aligning rRNA.
Thank you Brian and Craig for your nice replies !
Artur, I am talking about mussels with DUI.
- Badges
- Science method