Molecular Identification of Oyster Species Using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA [RAPD] Analysis

Abstract

The Ratnagiri coast of Maharshtra, India is rich in oyster resources where important species such as Crassostrea gryphoides, and C. madrasensis, C. rivularis and Saccostrea cuculata are the major contributors. They are found especially in turbid brackish waters like estuaries, creeks, bays and backwaters and are also found in sheltered areas like ports, harbours where it occurs in large numbers attached to pillars, walls, wharves, buoys and along open coasts where hard substrata like rock, stones are available for attachment. Current work was undertaken to do molecular identification of these using species-specific markers. A total of forty seven RAPD bands ranging from 500 to 900 bp in size were consistently generated with eight polymorphic bands (percentage polymorphism 17.02). The phylogenetic relationships between different populations of four oysters were revealed by drawing dendrogram based on genetic similarity using UPGMA implemented in PHYLIP version 3.5. The dendrogram exhibited three clusters. Results indicated that RAPD markers were useful for the assessment of the genetic relationships between species of oyster.