title: Identification of cultured Brachionus rotifers based on RFLP and SSCP screening.
abstract: The marine finfish industry worldwide depends greatly on the mass culture of Brachionus rotifers. Recently, molecular data have revealed a more complicated view about the species status of Brachionus rotifers than previous mainly morphological assessments. Under this view, Brachionus rotifers are comprised of many morphologically similar, albeit genetically differentiated, cryptic members of larger groups. A redefinition of the cultured rotifer species/biotypes is therefore needed if aquaculture is to reach higher levels of standardization and predictability. In this work, restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and single-strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) methods are applied to the COI and 16S rRNA mitochondrial genes. A detailed COI restriction map was constructed, using sequence data from all known representatives of Brachionus phylogroups. Therefore, it is the first time that such an extended restriction database has been produced. Several restriction endonucleases are proposed for the discrimination of the different Brachionus species/biotypes. Furthermore, eight different SSCP gel alleles are described for the 16S region. Using these data, five Brachionus species/biotypes were identified in 78 samples collected from laboratories and hatcheries around the world.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Development, and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Spiros
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Papakostas
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dooms
authors.forename: Marianna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Christodoulou
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Triantafyllidis
authors.forename: Ilias
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kappas
authors.forename: Kristof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dierckens
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bossier
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sorgeloos
authors.forename: Theodore J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Abatzopoulos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D010802:Phylogeny; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012403:Rotifera / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity