Evaluating the Function of Melting Point Temperature of Phylogenetic Genes for Detecting the Taxons of Snakes

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the molecule encoding the genetic instructions used in the growth and functioning of all living organisms and is very appropriate for biological information storage. Todays, the DNA sequences are regarded as sources for detecting the species and their phylogenetic relationships. Despite the modern technologies including the next generation sequencing and DNA barcoding, there is still a need for a fast, cheap, and reliable method for identifying species particularly in ambiguous morphologically-defined organisms. This study evaluated to see if some biophysical chemistry properties of PCR products like melting point can be used before sequencing to identify the samples of interest. Determining the melting temperature of PCR products is available in most available measurements in molecular biology labs. The present study focused on the potential use of melting temperature related to PCR products of 16S and Cyt b (highly used genes in phylogenetic studies) using a real-time PCR machine to identify different species of snakes from Iran. The preliminary results of these two genes are promising although extra steps are required to improve its sensitivity. The development of this method can be used in a rapid evaluation of species.