Figure 5

Comparison of various regions for use on various taxonomic levels (adapted from [244-246]). The thickness of the lines represents how frequently the regions are used for identification at the levels. The exact taxonomic levels that the regions can be applied to depend on the selected method. Successful application on a species does not guarantee successful application on other species at the same taxonomic level. For nuclear DNA regions, 18S and 5.8S regions are usually used for identification to the order or family levels and 26S is usually used for the order level down to the species level. The two ITS regions and the 5S spacer region are commonly used for identification at the species level, but they can also be applied down to the population/strain/variety level. For chloroplast DNA regions, 16S is suitable for the order level, while rbcL, atpβ and ndhF are suitable for the levels from order to species. The trnL intron, trnL-trnF spacer and matK regions can be applied to the levels from order to population/strain/variety, but the former two are more commonly used for the levels from family to species, while the latter is commonly used for the levels from order to subspecies. The atpβ-rbcL region can be used for the levels from genus to population/strain/variety, but it is more commonly used for the levels from genus to subspecies. For mitochondrial regions, cytochrome b and the control region can be used for identification at the levels from species to population/strain/variety, but the former is more commonly used for the species level and the latter is more commonly used for the subspecies level and lower.