RESUMO
Arthrospira is a photoautotrophic filamentous cyanobacterium belonging to the family Oscillatoriaceae, phylum Cyanophyta. Morphological criteria alone were inadequate for classification of Arthrospira . To develop new molecular markers, in this study, the cpcHID operon, 16S rRNA and 16S-23S rRNA internally transcribed spacer (ITS) of seven Arthrospira platensis strains, Sp-10, Sp-2, Sp-9, Sp-1, Sp-1ll, Sp-3 and Sp-5, were cloned and sequenced. And the results of bioinformatics and molecular phylogenetics analyses with BioEdit 7.0, Clustal X 1.81 and Phylip 3.65 were as follows: (1) The sequences of cpcHID operon, 16S rRNA and ITS from the seven strains were highly homologous to the each corresponding gene based on multiple pair-wise comparison. (2) The mean absolute deviation of the G + C content, the ratio of different sites and the genetic distance coefficient based on the sequences of cpcHID operon in the seven strains were generally greater than that based on 16S rRNA and ITS region. (3) The phylogenetic dendrogram based on the sequences of cpcHID operon was almost same with that based on the sequences of 16S rRNA and ITS region. Therefore, it revealed that cpcHID operon could be applied as a new molecular marker to classification and identification of cyanobacterium, and more appropriate for species or strains determination due to its abundant information.