Identification of Red Seabream(Pagrus major) eggs in Multi-species mixed samples using DNA Barcode

Abstract

Pagrus major, the red seabream, is an important fishery species in East Asia including China, Japan and Korea in both capture and culture fisheries. In recent years, climate change has been altering the marine environment as well as the ecosystem structure around the Korean peninsula.Identification of fish eggs becomes more important for detection of the spawning grounds and periods in establishment of the conservation and management plans. However, the eggs of most species in Korean waters have trouble in identification of their species. The morphological characters of the eggs are similar in many cases and even overlap among the species.In this study, we developed the species-specific probes and primers from the mitochondrial DNA COI sequences of about 320 fish species, which enabled us to identify the egg of the red seabream in the multi-species mixed net samples.Presence of the red seabream eggs in the net samples was indicated by the result of next generation sequencing and has been verified by the result of realtime-PCR with the specifically designed probe andprimer sets. ecosystem structure around the Korean peninsula.Identification of fish eggs becomes more important for detection of the spawning grounds and periods in establishment of the conservation and management plans. However, the eggs of most species in Korean waters have trouble in identification of their species. The morphological characters of the eggs are similar in many cases and even overlap among the species.In this study, we developed the species-specific probes and primers from the mitochondrial DNA COI sequences of about 320 fish species, which enabled us to identify the egg of the red seabream in the multi-species mixed net samples.Presence of the red seabream eggs in the net samples was indicated by the result of next generation sequencing and has been verified by the result of realtime-PCR with the specifically designed probe andprimer sets.