PCR amplification targeting a mitochondrial fragment of 6000 bp using the KOD Xtreme™ Hot Start DNA Polymerase⁄ kit. The 25 ll long-range PCR reactions incorporated 12.5 ll of 2 Xtreme Buffer, 5 ll of dNTPs (2 mM each), 0.5 ll each of the heavy and light strand primers (10 lM), 0.5 units of KOD Xtreme™ HotStart DNA Polymerase (0.5 ll at a concentration of 1 U/ll), 2 ll of template DNA (at an approximate concentration of 0.8 ng/ll), and 4 ll of HPLC water. The thermal cycling conditions for the long- range amplification were as follows: intial denaturation at 94 C for 2 min, followed by 40 cycles of denaturation at 98 C for 10 s, primer annealing at 60 C for 30 s, and extension at 68 C for 6 min, with a final extension also at 68 C for an additional 6 min. PCR, with a final extension at 68 C for 7 min. PCR products were visualized on 1% agarose gels, using 3 ll of the amplified PCR
product and 2 ll of a combination of GelRed™ nucleic acid stain
and 5 Green GoTaq Reaction Buffer (proportion 1:40).