©FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp.com.br Genetics and Molecular Research 10 (4): 3559-3564 (2011) Limited eficiency of universal mini-barcode primers for DNA ampliication from desert reptiles, birds and mammals I.A. Arif 1,2 , H.A. Khan 1,2 , M. Al Sadoon 2 and M. Shobrak 2,3 1 Analytical and Molecular Bioscience Research Group, Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2 Molecular Fingerprinting and Biodiversity Unit, Prince Sultan Research Chair for Environment and Wildlife, Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 3 Department of Biology, College of Science, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia Corresponding author: H.A. Khan E-mail: khan_haseeb@yahoo.com Genet. Mol. Res. 10 (4): 3559-3564 (2011) Received March 15, 2011 Accepted September 9, 2011 Published October 31, 2011 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.4238/2011.October.31.3 ABSTRACT. In recent years, DNA barcoding has emerged as a powerful tool for species identiication. We report an extended validation of a universal DNA mini-barcode for ampliication of 130-bp COI segments from 23 specimens collected from a desert environment, including 11 reptiles, ive mammals and seven birds. Besides the standard double-annealing protocol, we also tested a more stringent single-annealing protocol. The PCR success rate for the ampliication of the mini-barcode region was: mammals (4/5), reptiles (5/11) and birds (4/7). These indings demonstrate the limited utility of universal primers for mini-barcoding, at least for these vertebrate taxa that we collected from the Saudi Arabian desert. Key words: Mini-barcode; Cytochrome oxidase 1; Reptiles; Mammals; Birds; PCR; Barcoding; Ampliication success