Development of universal primers for isolating fragments of the LEAFY gene.

LEAFY orthologs are found throughout land plants. Degenerate primers were designed for amplifying exon 3 region fragments of the LEAFY gene. Sixteen taxa from different plants were sampled, all of which were successfully isolated, which indicated that this set of primers is universally applicable for all land plants. With the use of this method, there may be potential for applying LEAFY exon 3 as a single-copy nuclear marker to resolve reticulate evolution at high taxonomic levels and to clarify the origin and evolutionary history of the LEAFY gene.