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Molecular Marine Biology and Biotechnology
(1994) 3(5), 294-299
DNA primers for amplification of mitochondrial cytochrome
c
oxidase subunit I from diverse metazoan invertebrates
0. Folmer, M. Black, W. Hoeh,* R. Lutz, and
R. Vrijenhoek+
Center for Theoretical and Applied Genetics, and
Institute of Marine and Coastal Science, Rutgers
University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903-231
Abstract
We describe "universal" DNA primers for polymer-
ase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a 710-bp
fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase
subunit I gene
(
COI)
from
11
invertebrate phyla:
Echinodermata, Mollusca, Annelida, Pogonophora,
Arthropoda, Nemertinea, Echiura, Sipuncula, Pla-
tyhelminthes, Tardigrada, and Coelenterata, as well
as the putative phylum Vestimentifera. Preliminary
comparisons revealed that these
COI
primers gener-
ate informative sequences for phylogenetic analyses
at the species and higher taxonomic levels.
Introduction
The purpose of this short communication is to de-
scribe "universal" DNA primers for the polymerase
chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a 710-bp frag-
ment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase
subunit I gene
(
COI).
This study was motivated by
the recent discoveries of more than 230 new inver-
tebrate species, comprising new genera, families,
classes, orders, and potentially a new phylum, from
deep-sea hydrothermal vent and cold-water sulfide
or methane seep communities (Tunnicliffe, 1991).
Our goal was to develop molecular techniques for
phylogenetic studies of these diverse organisms. We
focused on the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxi-
dase subunit I
(
COI)
gene because it appears to be
among the most conservative protein-coding genes
in the mitochondrial genome of animals (Brown,
1985), which was preferable for the evolutionary
*Present address: Department of Biology, Dalhousie Univer-
sity,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
+Correspondence should be sent to this author.
Copyright © 1994 Blackwell Science, Inc.
294
ti
me depths likely to be found in our studies.
We quickly became aware of the broad utility of
these
COI
primers for broader systematic studies
of metazoan invertebrates, including acoelomates,
pseudocoelomates, and coelomate protostomes and
deuterostomes.
Results
To design candidate primers, we compared pub-
lished DNA sequences from the following species:
blue mussel,
Mytilus edulis;
fruitfly,
Drosophila ya-
kuba;
honeybee,
Apis mellifera;
mosquito,
Anophe-
les gambiae; brine shrimp,
Artemia franciscana;
nematodes,
Ascaris suum
and
Caenorhabditis ele-
gans;
sea urchin,
Strongylocentrotus purpuratus;
carp,
Cyprinus carpio;
frog,
Xenopus laevis;
chicken,
Gallus gallus;
mouse,
Mus musculus; cow,
Bos taurus;
fin whale,
Balaenoptera physalus;
and
human,
Homo sapiens
(Figure
1).
Several highly
conserved regions of these
COI
genes were used as
the targets for primer designs.
Altogether, three coding-strand and six anti-
coding-strand primers were tested (Table
1)
for am-
plification efficiency. The following primer pair
consistently amplified a 710-bp fragment of
COI
across the broadest array of invertebrates:
LCO1490: 5'-ggtcaacaaatcataaagatattgg-3'
HC02198: 5'-taaacttcagggtgaccaaaaaatca-3'
In the code names above, L and H refer to light
and heavy DNA strands, CO refers to cytochrome
oxidase, and the numbers (1490 and 2198) refer to
the position of the
D. yakuba 5'
nucleotide.
We also present the primers as coding-strand se-
quences, along with their inferred amino acids (Fig-
ure
1).
The usefulness of these primers results from
the high degree of sequence conservation in their
respective 3' ends across the 15 taxa. The 3' end of
each primer is on a second-position nucleotide. All
other pairwise primer combinations amplified
fewer taxa or gave additional nonspecific products
under less stringent amplification conditions.
The LCO1490 and HC02198 amplified DNA
from more than 80 invertebrate species from 11
Figure 1. Coding-strand sequences of the LCO1490 and
HC02198 primers and inferred amino acid sequences.
Dots represent identical nucleotides at a given position
compared with
Drosophila yakuba. *Position as listed in
GenBank. Accession numbers and primary references for
GenBank sequences are as follows:Mytilus edulis,
M83761/M83762 (Hoffmann et al., 1992);
Drosophila ya-
kuba,
X03240 (Clary and Wolstenholme, 1985);
Apis mel-
ifera,
M23409 (Crozier et al., 1989);
Anopheles gambiae,
L20934 (Beard et al., 1993);Artemia franciscana (J.R.
Valverde, direct submission to GenBank access number
X69067);
Strongylocentrotus
purpuratus, X12631 (Jacobs
et al., 1988);
Ascaris
suum, X54252, and
Caenorhabditis
elegans,
X54253 (Okimoto et al., 1990);
Cyprinus carpio,
X61010 (Chang and Huang, 1991);
Homo sapiens, M12548
(
Anderson et al., 1981);Mus musculus,
V00711 (Bibb et
al., 1981);
Bos taurus,
V00654 (Anderson et al., 1982);
Balaenoptera physalus,
X61145 (Arnason et al., 1991);
Xenopus laevis,
X02890 (Roe et al., 1985); and
Gallus
gallus, X52392 (Desjardins and Morais, 1990).
phyla (Table
2).
The PCR products of species from
five phyla (Mollusca, Annelida, Arthropoda, Vesti-
mentifera, and Coelenterata) are illustrated in Fig-
ure
2.
Except for
Hydra,
all products resulted from
a single PCR amplification. The
Hydra
sample was
reamplified to provide sufficient product for direct
sequencing. For several species, initial amplifica-
tion produced multiple PCR products. In these
cases, target DNA for sequencing was obtained by
raising the annealing temperature, or gel-isolating
the initial 710-bp fragment and reamplifying it.
To verify that the amplified fragment is indeed
COI,
we obtained a minimum of
200
by of se-
quence from all species listed in Table
2
(except
those marked with an asterisk). Typically, cycle-
Universal COI
primers
for invertebrates
295
sequencing with these primers produced a readable
sequence of at least 651 bp, equivalent to
219
in-
ferred amino acid residues. To demonstrate that the
products are
COI,
we provide four new sequences
(in reading frame) from work in progress on deep-
sea invertebrates (Figure 3). Comparisons of these
sequences with
COI
from
D.
yakuba
reveal that most
variation occurs at the third-position nucleotides.
Ongoing analyses of this
COI
fragment from a di-
verse array of bivalve mollusks and vestimentiferan
tube worms suggest that phylogenetic resolution at
the phylum and class level can be obtained from
inferred amino sequences. Intermediate-level reso-
lution (family to genus) is retained in first- and
second-position nucleotides. Third-position substi-
tutions are saturated at these higher levels, but re-
tain informative polymorphisms within at least one
bivalve species,
Bathymodiolus thermophilus.
Discussion
The universal
DNA primers,
LCO1490
and
HCO2198,
amplified a 710-bp region of the mito-
chondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene from
a broad range of metazoan invertebrates. We are
presently using these primers to examine phyloge-
netic relations among the following taxa:
(1)
tube
worms (Vestimentifera) and other protostome
worms (Pogonophora and Annelida);
(2)
deep-sea
marine bivalve mollusks (Mytilidae and Vesicomyi-
dae); (3) freshwater bivalve mollusks (Unionidae,
Dreissenidae, and Corbiculidae);
(4)
vent-associated
Table
1.
Other COI primers tested in this study, pre-
sented relative to the coding strand of
Drosophila yakuba.
296
0. Folmer, M. Black, W. Hoeh, R. Lutz, and R. Vrijenhoek
Table 2.
Species representing eleven different phyla for which the
LCO1490
and
HC02198
primers amplified and
sequenced the 710-bp mitochondrial COI fragment.
*
Amplified, but not sequenced to date
t Jones (1985)
Table 2.
Continued
arthropods (Caridae); and (5) parasitic platyhel-
minths (Trematoda). We also are investigating the
utility of this
COI
fragment for larval identifications
in several of these groups. Independent laboratories
have verified the utility of the LCO1490 and
HCO2198 primers for amplification and sequencing
of
COI
from (1) oysters, genera
Crassostrea (Y-P.
Hu,
Louisiana State University, and M. Hare, University
of Georgia) and
Ostrea
(
Diarmaid O'Foigel, Univer-
sity of South Carolina); (2) scallops, genus
Placopec-
ten
(P.
Gaffney, University of Delaware); (3) hard
clams, genus
Mercenaria
(
D.
O'Foigel); (4) archaeo-
gastropod limpets (A. MacArthur, University of Vic-
toria); (5) arachnids (A. Tan, University of Hawaii);
and (6) marine hydrozoans (S. Karl, University of
South Florida).
Experimental Procedures
Whole cell DNA was extracted from either fresh
tissue or tissue frozen at - 80°C immediately after
collection of a specimen. We used a conventional
hexadecyl-trimethyl-ammonium bromide (CTAB)
protocol, modified from Doyle and Dickson (1987).
Typically, 1 mm
3
of tissue was extracted and the
L 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 L
Figure 2.
Agarose gel of PCR products from seven differ-
ent species of invertebrates. All PCR products except lane
7 are directly amplified from total DNA extraction. Lane L,
Phi-X/HaeIII ladder. Lane 1, blue mussel,
Mytilus edulis.
Lane 2, squid,
Loligo pealeii.
Lane 3, polychaete
Paralvi-
nella palmiformis.
Lane 4, oligochaete
Tubifex tubifex.
Lane 5, shrimp,
Rimicaris exoculata.
Lane 6, tube worm,
Riftia pachyptila.
Lane 7, reamplification of hydra,
Hydra
littoralis.
Lane 8, negative control PCR reaction with all
components except template DNA.
Universal COI primers for invertebrates
297
DNA resuspended in 75 to 150
µl
(dependent upon
the size of the pelleted DNA) of sterile distilled
water. In our experience, DNA extracted by this
protocol and stored at - 20°C remains intact for at
least three years.
Polymerase chain reaction
We typically used 1
µl
of the DNA extract as tem-
plate for a 50-µ1 PCR reaction, using 4 units of Taq
polymerase (Promega, Madison, WI) per reaction.
Each 50-µ1 reaction consisted of 5 p.l of
lox
buffer
(provided by the manufacturer), 5
µl
of MgCl
2
(0.025
mol/liter, both solutions supplied with the polymer-
ase), 2.5
µl
of each of the two primer stock solu-
tions (10 µmol/liter), 5 p.l C, T, A, G nucleotide mix
(
Boehringer Mannheim, Indianapolis, IN, 2 µmol/
liter for each nucleotide), and 29
µl
sterile distilled
water. Reactions were amplified through 35 cycles
at the following parameters: one minute at 95°C,
one minute at 40°C, and one and a half minutes at
72°C, followed by a final extension step at 72°C for
seven minutes. Amplifications were confirmed by
standard submarine gel electrophoresis, using 2%
w/v low-melting agarose/TBE gels (NuSieve, FMC
BioProducts), stained with ethidium bromide.
Sequencing
Most templates could be sequenced from a single
round of amplification. Occasionally, templates
provided too little product from a single amplifica-
tion. In such cases, the first amplification product
was gel-isolated and used as template for a reampli-
fication with a higher annealing temperature (50°C,
all other parameters being held the same). In all
instances, the PCR product for sequencing was ob-
tained by running the entire reaction volume on
a 2% low-melting agarose gel, using wide-tooth
combs. The reaction product was excised from the
gel and subsequently purified utilizing Wizard-PCR
kits (Promega).
We used -y-
33
P (NEN Dupont) end-labeled ver-
sions of the LCO1490 and HCO2198 primers for
cycle-sequencing (Perkin-Elmer Cetus, Amplitaq
Cycle-sequencing Kit, protocol according to the
manufacturer) of the double-stranded PCR prod-
ucts. Two electrophoretic analyses were required to
sequence the complete fragment in each direction.
First,
we used a 6% denaturing (50% w/v urea)
polyacrylamide gel (19:1 acrylamide to bis-acryl-
amide ratio) in a 40-cm-tall, wedge (0.4-1.2-mm)
gel configuration to obtain approximately 250 to
300 by of readable sequence. Second, we used a
5% denaturing polyacrylamide gel in an 88-cm-tall,
straight (0.4-mm) configuration, to obtain an addi-
tional 350 to 425 by of sequence.
Acknowledgments
Our thanks to A. Trivedi and C. Di Meo for assistance
in the laboratory. Dr. S. Karl's advice was greatly
appreciated, particularly during the early phase of
this
work. This is contribution No. 94-26 of the
Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers
University, and New Jersey Agricultural Experi-
ment Station Publication No. 2-67175-8-94, sup-
ported by state funds and National Science
Figure 3.
Four new cytochrome oxi-
dase subunit I nucleotide sequences
from marine invertebrates shown in
reference to
Drosophila yakuba. D, D.
yakuba;
S,
Solemya velum
(
Mollusca:
Bivalvia);
K, Katharina sp. (Mollusca:
Polyplacophora);
A, Amphisamytha
galapagensis
(
Annelida: Polychaeta:
Ampharetidae), and P,
Paralvinella
palmiformis
(
Annelida: Polychaeta:
Alvinellidae).
Nucleotide #1 corre-
sponds to position
#1516
in the pub-
lished
D. yakuba
sequence.
Foundation grants OCE89-17311 and OCE93-02205
to R.C.V. and R.A.L.
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