ESTABLISHMENT OF A MOLECULAR BASED METHOD FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF SKIPJACK TUNA (Katsuwonus pelamis) IN LARGE SCALE FISH GIVING OUT INDUSTRY

Author (s) : Dr. C. MARIMUTHU & R. ANUPRIYA

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Abstract :
Skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) is most often sold as canned light tuna and is the most common species found in tuna cans. In Sri Lanka differentiation of tuna species prior to processing is achieved through morphological identification, which is not a reliable method. Since the quality and market value of tuna products differ from species to species, a fraudulent replacement of valuable species with less valuable ones may occur. This has become a major limitation in fishery industry in order to reach products to the international market. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to establish a molecular based diagnostic method to differentiate skipjack tuna from other tuna species commonly found in Sri Lanka. Genomic DNA of skipjack tuna (K. pelamis), yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) and bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) were extracted from the muscle tissues. Amplification of DNA from tuna samples were carried using genus specific primers which flank at 558 bp region of Cytochrome b gene. The amplified DNA products of tuna species were digested with ScaI restriction enzyme. The pattern restriction fragments evidence that products having band sizes of 215 bp and 343 bp were detected only from T. albacares (n= 8) and T. obesus (n= 8) while, K. pelamis (n= 8) was remained as an indigestive product (558 bp). Therefore, this can be used to differentiate K. pelamis from the other tuna species which are commonly found in Sri Lanka.

Keywords : Tuna species, DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction, restriction enzyme digestion

Conference Date : 17/09/2021

Pages : 191

Paper ID : IESMDT189