MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION OF SOME MEDITERRANEAN SEA FISHES BY DNA BARCODING

Abstract

Background and aims: Fishes are the main animal protein source for human beings and play a vital role in aquatic ecosystems and food webs. Fish identification can be challenging, especially in the tropics (due to high diversity), and this is particularly true for larval forms or fragmentary remains. DNA barcoding, which uses the 5′ region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) as a target gene, is an efficient method for standardized species-level identification for biodiversity assessment and conservation, pending the establishment of reference sequence libraries. Materials and methods: In this study, fishes were collected from the Meditternean Sea, identified morphologically, and imaged digitally. DNA was extracted, PCR-amplified, and the standard barcode region was bidirectionally sequenced for 27 species in 16 families. All specimen provenance data and associated sequence information were recorded in the barcode of life data systems (BOLD; www.barcodinglife.org). Analytical tools on BOLD were used to assess the performance of barcoding to identify species. Results: The studyemphasized the distinguishing power of COI barcodes and the effectiveness of applying them