Amornrat Phongdara, Watcharasuda Hualkasin, Waraporn Wanna, Ausa Chanumpai and Wilaiwan Chotigeat

pp. 467 - 478

Abstract

The morphology of imported white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) is similar to other native white
shrimp of the Thai peninsula (Penaeus merguiensis, Penaeus silasi and Penaeus indicus) and could not be
separated clearly in the juvenile stage. It causes the mixture of them in the culture pond leading to problems
on the farm. This work identified the different pattern of cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of 7 species (Litopenaeus vannamei, Penaeus merguiensis, Penaeus indicus, Penaeus silasi, Penaeus monodon, Penaeus semisalcatus and Metapenaeus sp.) using PCR-RFLP technique. The COI
gene fragment was amplified by PCR method and subsequently cleaved by restriction enzyme, RsaI, providing specific bands, 282 bp and 526 bp in L. vannamei, 300 and 582 bp in P. silasi, 295 bp and 555 bp in
P. monodon, 376 bp and 524 bp in P. semisulcatus, and 100 bp and 800 bp in Metapenaeus sp; four specific
bands, 142 bp, 152 bp, 240 bp and 360 bp in P. merguiensis and 282 bp, 248 bp and 334 bp in P. indicus. This
method can be applied to identify and clearly separate the pacific white shrimp (L. vannamei) from other
morphologically similar species and distant species.

Keywords

• PCR-RFLP
• white shrimp
• mtDNA
• COI