MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION OF PUFFER FISH LAGOCEPHALUS SCELERATUS (GMELIN, 1789) AND LAGOCEPHALUS SPADICEUS (RICHARDSON, 1845) FROM EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, TURKEY
WOS: 000378967600015The Mediterranean Sea is home to numerous invasive marine species. The Suez Canal is considered as the major route of migrating Indo-Pacific species known as Lessepsian species, from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean. One of those species Lagocephalus sceleratus and Lagocephalus spadiceus has serious impact on the ecosystem, fisheries and human health within a decade. DNA based methods are frequently preferred and reliable techniques in species identification studies. The 16S rRNA genes and cytochrome b genes are relatively conserved mitochondrial genes, used for this purpose. 16S rRNA gene primers and cytochrome b gene specific pirmers were used to identify Turkish L. sceleratus and L. spadiceus specimens from Gokova Bay via PCR analysis. Obtained gene sequence deposited in GenBank databse. Consequently, it was obtained that cytochrome b gene sequence is more useful than 16S rRNA gene region for identification of L. spadiceus samples while both gene region give reasonable results for L. sceleratus species.United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under Small Grants Programme (SGP) [TUR/SGP/OP5/STAR/BD/13/02]This work was supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under Small Grants Programme (SGP) number TUR/SGP/OP5/STAR/BD/13/0
