Fingerprinting and phylogeny of some heterocystous cyanobacteria using short tandemly repeated repetitive and highly iterated palindrome sequences

The presence of repeated DNA, viz. short tandemly repeated repetitive (STRR) and highly iterated palindrome (HIP) sequences was used as a typing technique for assessing genetic variability and phylogenetic relatedness of heterocystous cyanobacteria. Primers analogous to the STRR and HIP sequences were used to generate specific fingerprints for the twelve heterocystous cyanobacterial strains and a dendrogram was constructed. STRRmod and HIPTG primers revealed 100% polymorphism and yielded almost identical patterns. Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 clustered with Nostoc muscorum with both primers. Primer STRRmod supported the heterogeneity between Nostoc and Anabaena but HIPTG placed these two genera distinctly apart. STRRmod and HIPTG revealed that the members of the two orders were intermixed and thus suggesting a monophyletic origin of heterocystous cyanobacteria.