Food Control 48 (2015) 108e116 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Control journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodcont Genetic diversity of ivory shell (Babylonia areolata) in Taiwan and identification of species using DNA-based assays Tsai-Hsin Chiu a, *, Ching-Wen Kuo a, Hui-Chiu Lin b, Ding-Shi Huang b, Po-Long Wu c a Deperment of Food Science, National PengHu University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Penghu Marine Biology Research Center, Fisheries Research Institute, COA, EY, Taiwan c Environment and Biotechnology Department, Refining and Manufacturing Research Institute, CPC Corporation, Chiayi, Taiwan b a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Received 27 November 2013 Received in revised form February 2014 Accepted May 2014 Available online 29 May 2014 For better traceability of seafood products in Taiwan, we need to effectively test product quality during the processes of identification of seafood species The aim of this study was to analyse gene diversity and the methods of identification of high-value seafood, ivory shell (Babylonia areolata), on the Penghu Island in Taiwan using molecular marker technology and to build a relevant molecular database Thirty-three samples of B areolata and the samples of other Babylonia species, including Babylonia feicheni, Babylonia spirata spirata, Babylonia perforata and Babylonia formosae formosae, from cultivation and from the wild were tested using the inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) method, mitochondrial DNA analysis, PCR-single-strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) and PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) The results showed that the primers ISSR3, ISSR7 and ISSR13 of the ISSR method and cytochrome C oxidase subunit (coxI) gene analysis have a good discriminatory power in interspecies and intra-species tests In conclusion, ISSR, PCR-DGGE and PCR-SSCP with coxI analysis can be used for the screening and identification of B areolata species Furthermore, these molecular methods could be useful for the identification of other types of seafood © 2014 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved Keywords: Cytochrome C oxidase subunit Inter-simple sequence repeat method Babylonia areolata Introduction The globalization of the seafood industry has allowed many countries to import or export several local species to countries around the world Because of an increasingly complex supply chain, information about fish is often unclear, insufficient, confusing or misleading to buyers After seafood is imported, it often makes many more stops before reaching the consumer, thus causing difficulties with tracking Many fishery products are processed (eviscerated, beheaded, skinned, filleted, marinated, salted, smoked and canned) before delivery to buyers, and this modification makes it difficult to identify the species in some circumstances (Mafra, Ferreira, & Oliveira, 2008) Moreover, the growing demand for seafood products has given rise to deceptive practices such as misbranding of fish species The seafood fraud involving substitution or mislabelling of high-end market fish with lower-priced species is common (Rasmussen, Morrissey, & Hebert, 2009) Therefore, a study of species identification was conducted here, prompted in part by the growing concern in the area of food safety * Corresponding author Tel.: ỵ886 69264115x3826 E-mail address: thchiu@npu.edu.tw (T.-H Chiu) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2014.05.032 0956-7135/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved regarding seafood fraud After simple inspection of an aquatic product, it is not always possible to determine that misbranding has occurred Processing often removes or damages diagnostic characteristics crucial for species identification by conventional taxonomic methods Therefore, traditional morphological methods are often insufficient for distinguishing species (Handy et al., 2011) DNA is more informative than proteins and can be easily extracted from small traces of organic material (Hellberg & Morrisey, 2011) PCR-based methods are extremely sensitive, often more rapid than other techniques and are widely used in the fishery industry (Rasmussen & Morrissey, 2008) Numerous DNAbased detection methods have been used for the identification of seafood species and characterization of different types of animal and plant products These include PCR sequencing; discontinuous molecular markers such as random amplified polymorphic DNA, amplified fragment length polymorphisms and their variants [i.e inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR), sequence-specific amplification polymorphism and selective amplification of microsatellite polymorphic loci]; and single-stranded conformation polymorphism (SSCP) (Hellberg & Morrisey, 2011; Teletchea, 2009; Galimberti et al., 2013) In addition, ISSR and SSCP not require prior knowledge of DNA sequence information The ISSR technology is cheaper, simpler and more rapid than the other methods and