A red alga-specific phycoerythrin gene for biodiversity surveys of callithamnioid red algae

We introduce a photosynthetic pigment-encoding phycoerythrin gene, consisting of alpha (cpeA) and beta (cpeB) units that can be used for biodiversity surveys of callithamnioid red algae. A set of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers were designed to amplify an approximately 1-kb fragment of the gene from 14 taxa. These have been proven useful in isolating the gene from samples mixed with diatoms. Pairwise distance and synonymous and nonsynonymous nucleotide substitution rates of the cpeA and cpeB regions are described. This is the first study to examine the phycoerythrin sequences for use in red alga biodiversity surveys.