The coverage rate of predicted primers.

The primers in this table were fragments within the conservative fragments in Table 1. If coverage rates of neighboring candidate primers were all above 95%, they were merged. If no predicted primers in a fragment, the cutoff rate decreased to 90%. The average coverage rate was thus calculated for the neighboring primers. Universal primers (U) were obtained by referring to archaeal (A) and eubacterial (E) predicted primers at the same positions of E. coli genome. The coverage rate was measured for the merged primer. For the universal primers, both were provided (A/E). Abbreviated names for bacteria and the positions were listed as those in Table 1.