Development of a method for genetic identification of four species of anchovies: E. encrasicolus, E. anchoita, E. ringens and E. japonicus.

摘要

Cytochrome b has been successfully employed for genetic identification of four species of anchovies (Engraulis spp.) using two methodologies: PCR-RFLP and FINS. The first method allowed the identification of Engraulis anchoita, Engraulis ringens and Engraulis japonicus-Engraulis encrasicolus. In some cases, with a determined restriction profile, this technique was able to differentiate E. japonicus from E. encrasicolus. The second method allowed the identification of those four species and demonstrates that FINS is a suitable technique for the identification of all species studied in this work. Phylogenetic trees show that sequences of E. encrasicolus are grouped into two different clusters. These results are consistent with the previously published data which suggest that some species of genus Engraulis could be cryptic species, being one specie or population distributed in the oceanic habitat and the other one around the coast..