Good news: we can identify Ulva species erupted in the Yellow Sea more easily and cheaply now

Abstract

The green tide in the Yellow Sea which has been erupting continuously for 13 years, has brought a huge disaster to the ecosystem. There are four Ulva species from the early stage of green tide in the Yellow Sea usually: Ulva prolifera, Ulva compressa, Ulva flexuosa and Ulva linza. With the passage of time, the green tide floating to Qingdao mainly consists of Ulva prolifera. Molecular biological identification of species during the outbreak of green tide in the Yellow Sea has always been a focus of surveillance, but the ‘ITS-5S’ test system we have been using for a long time is not perfect. Through analyzing the mitochondrial genome of species published by our laboratory and combining with the other mitochondrial genome data, we find that the rps2-trnL gene spacer sequences can accurately distinguish the Ulva species of the green tide. After gene amplification and the construction of Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic tree, we find that the rps2-trnL gene spacer sequence is completely suitable for the barcode sequence of common Ulva species. This discovery could save researchers a lot of money and time, also, provide basic data for future green tide prevention and control.