Kamarudin, Kamarul Rahim and Mohamed Rehan, Maryam and Mohd Noor, Hanina and Ramly, Nur Zazarina and Mohamed Rehan, Aisyah
(2016)
16S rRNA barcoding technique for species identification of processed sea cucumbers from selected Malaysian markets.
Journal of Science and Mathematics Letters, 4 (1).
pp. 10-23.
ISSN 2462-2052
Abstract
In food industry, wide-ranging processing of sea cucumbers (Phylum Echinodermata: Class
Holothuroidea) including gutting, boiling, roasting, and subsequent preservation procedures
are frequently needed prior to marketing. These processes cause body deformation of the
sea cucumbers, thus leading to difficulties in species identification and confirmation of
the processed sea cucumbers or beche-de-mer. Furthermore, beche-de-mer products in
Malaysian markets are often unlabelled or mislabelled. Economic fraud, health hazards,
and illegal trade of protected species are the potential major consequences of the issues.
Therefore, a reliable, reproducible, and rapid technique for species identification is required.
For that reason, this study was conducted to determine species identity of 25 beche-de-mer
specimens that were not tagged with species details from four selected Malaysian markets.
Five reference samples were also included in the analyses consisting of fresh samples that
were morphologically identified as Stichopus horrens and Holothuria (Mertensiothuria)
leucospilota from Pangkor Island, Perak, Malaysia. Phylogenetic analyses of 30 partial
sequences of non-protein-coding 16S mitochondrial ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene using
five main methods i.e. Neighbour-Joining (NJ), Maximum Likelihood (ML), Minimum
Evolution (ME), Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA), and
Maximum Parsimony (MP) showed the presence of two main clusters of the beche-demer
specimens: Stichopodidae (gamat family) and Holothuriidae (timun laut family). The
beche-de-mer specimens of S. horrens, Stichopus herrmanni, and Thelenota anax were
the three gamat species that clustered under the family Stichopodidae. Meanwhile, the
beche-de-mer specimens of H. leucospilota, Holothuria (Halodeima) edulis, Holothuria
(Metriatyla) scabra, and H. scabra var. versicolor were the four timun laut species that
clustered under the family Holothuriidae. In fact, the outcomes of this study suggested
the potential of 16S mitochondrial rRNA gene sequencing technique to be used by the
enforcement agencies in monitoring and overcoming the issues of species substitution and
product mislabeling of beche-de-mer products in Malaysian markets.
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
Download Statistics
Download Statistics