Genetic markers are tools that can facilitate molecular breeding, even in species lacking genomic resources. An important class of genetic markers is those based on orthologous genes, because they can guide hypotheses about conserved gene function. For under-studied species a key bottleneck in gene-based marker development is the need to develop molecular tools that reliably access genes with orthology to the genomes of well-characterized reference species. Here we report an efficient platform for designing cross-species gene-derived markers in legumes. The automated platform, named CSGM Designer (URL: http://tgil.donga.ac.kr/CSGMdesigner), facilitates rapid and systematic design of cross-species genic markers. The underlying database is composed of genome data from five legume species whose genomes are substantially characterized. Use of CSGM designer is enhanced by graphical displays of query results, which we describe as “circular viewer” and “search-within-results” functions. CSGM platform provides a virtual PCR representation, called eHT-PCR, that predicts the specificity of each primer pair simultaneously in multiple genomes. CSGM Designer output was experimentally validated for the amplification of orthologous genes using 16 genotypes representing 12 crop and model legume species, distributed among the galegoid and phaseoloid clades. Successful cross-species amplification was obtained for 85.3% of PCR primer combinations. CSGM Designer spans the divide between well-characterized crop and model legume species and their less well-characterized relatives. The outcome is PCR primers that target highly conserved genes for polymorphism discovery, enabling functional inferences and ultimately facilitating trait-associated molecular breeding.

Morus Folium (Sang-yeop in Korean) is one of the most important Oriental medicinal plants. In Korea, both M. alba and M. cathayana are regarded as the botanical sources for Morus Folium. In order to discriminate M. alba and M. cathayana from their adulterant, M. tricuspidata, mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 7 (nad7) intron 2 region was targeted for molecular analysis with universal primers. DNA polymorphisms, including SNP sites, insertions, and deletions, were detected among these three species sequencing data. Based on these DNA polymorphisms, specific primers were designed for the three species respectively. Multiplex PCR was conducted for molecular authentication of M. alba, M. cathayana, and M. tricuspidata with specific primers. The present results indicate that it is possible to identify Morus Folium from its adulterant using mitochondrial nad7 intron 2 region. The established multiplex-PCR system was proved to be effective for identification of Morus Folium. The results indicate that mitochondrial introns can be used for inter-specific polymorphic study, and the described method can be applied for molecular identification of medicinal materials.

Genomes of clusters of related eukaryotes are now being sequenced at an increasing rate. In this paper, we developed an accurate, low-cost method for annotation of gene prediction and exon-intron structure. The gene prediction was adapted for delta 1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate-synthetase (p5cs) gene from China wild-type of the halophytic Leymus chinensis (Trin.), naturally adapted to highly-alkali soils. Due to complex adaptive mechanisms in halophytes, more attentions are being paid on the regulatory elements of stress adaptation in halophytes. P5CS encodes delta 1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate-synthetase, a key regulatory enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of proline, that has direct correlation with proline accumulation in vivo and positive relationship with stress tolerance. Using analysis of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and PCR, and direct sequencing, 1076 base pairs (bp) of cDNA in length and 2396 bp of genomic DNA in length were obtained from direct sequencing results. Through gene prediction and exon-intron structure verification, the full-length of cDNA sequence was divided into eight parts, with seven parts of intron insertion. The average lengths of determinated coding regions and non-coding regions were 154.17 bp and 188.57 bp, respectively. Nearly all splice sites displayed GT as the donor sites at the 5' end of intron region, and 71.43% displayed AG as the acceptor sites at the 3' end of intron region. We conclude that this method is a cost-effective way for obtaining an experimentally verified genome annotation.