Pcr-rflp for identification of the pearl oyster Pinctada imbricate from Brazil and Venezuela

Abstract

Oysters of the genus Pinctada are of great economic importance due to their extensive use in human feeding and pearl cultivation. It includes four species: Pinctada radiata (Europe), P. imbricata (Western Atlantic) and the P. fucata-martensi complex (Pacific), the latter being a species complex of difficult morphological differentiation. Although this species complex has several molecular studies corroborating each species as valid, there are still doubts about the validity of P. imbricata in the South of Western Atlantic (i.e., Brazilian Coast). Here we carried out a RFLP study with populations from Ceará, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Venezuelan coast. We analyzed mitochondrial (16S) and nuclear genes (partial IGS). This study confirms the Brazilian and Venezuelan stocks as genetically close to the P. imbricata stocks from Caribbean than the P. martensi-fucata complex. This result is important for pearl-oyster farmers, demonstrating that the Brazilian and Venezuelan stocks are not alien species or hybrids of Indo-Pacific species.