DNA BARCODING OF OTTER CLAM (Lutraria rhynchaena) IN VAN DON DISTRICT, QUANG NINH PROVINCE

Abstract

Otter clam (Lutraria rhynchaena) is a genus of bivalve mollusk, distributed mainly in Van Don, Quang Ninh province. It is currently being exploited and raised for food use. However, frequent outbreaks of diseases have put the otter clam farming profession at risk of unsustainability. The import of foreign otter clam for consumption in Vietnam is becoming popular. On the other hand, the identification of the otter clam species in Vietnam is not really clear and mainly based on morphology. This study was based on the extraction of the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequences of 5 species of otter clam published on GenBank to build DNA barcodes for taxonomy or quick traceability products on the market today. Evaluation of the similarity of COI gene regions was carried out with BLAST tool, nucleotide sequence comparison was performed by BioEdit program, genetic distance between sequences was determined by MEGA X software. The study has built a phylogenetic tree that separates each studied otter clam species and the evolutionary relationship between them, and at the same time built a DNA barcode from the COI (658 bp) gene region sequence of the otter clam in Vietnam.