Authentication of three valuable Dendrobium species by adapter ligation-mediated allele-specific amplification

Abstract

The adapter ligation-mediated allele-specific amplification (ALM-ASA) has been applied to authenticate three valuable Dendrobium species (Dendrobium aphyllum, Dendrobium devonianum and Dendrobium officinale) and their corresponding “Fengdou” foods samples. Three species-specific primers and a universal primer were designed. By using these primers, three amplification products are 198 bp (D. aphyllum), 250 bp (D. devonianum) and 310 bp (D. officinale) in length, which were clearly distinguishable on a 2.0% agarose gel. In addition, no band was observed with other 17 allied Dendrobium species of “Fengdou”. The results showed that ALM-ASA could be used to authenticate not only the three valuable Dendrobium species but related food products such as “Fengdou” foods by simultaneous detection of three-site nucleotide difference on rDNA internal transcribed spacer region.