DETERMINING THE MITOCHONDRIAL CYTOCHROME B GENE SEQUENCES AND ASSESSING THE HEREDITARY RELATIONSHIP OF GROUPERS (EPINEPHELUS SPP.) CULTURED IN VIETNAM TERRITORIAL WATER

Abstract

Groupers (Epinephelus) are divers and have high commercial value achieved expert standard. The Vietnam territorial water has about 30 Epinephe/us species, distributed in nearshore reef as: Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Nghe An, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Vung Tau, etc. Eight samples of Epinepheus cultured in Vietnam territorial water were collected and the total DNA was extrated, the mitochondrial cytochrome b (cob) gene was cloned and its sequence was determined. There were totalS 1 differences of nucleotides and 8 amino acids. Six species of Vietnam EpHP, EpSl, EpS2, EpS5, EpS9 and EpSIO showed 100% similarity with sequences of E. coicoides of China, while two species, EpS3 and EpS8, were of low similarity. EpSl, EpS2, EpS5 were of high similarity with 3 nucleotide differences between them. There was I difference of nucleotide at position 28 between EpS3 and EpS8, while they had 89% similarity with 41 nucleotide differences as compared to E. fuscoguttatus. Analysing family tree showed that six species of Vietnam, EpHP, EpSl, EpS2, EpS5, EpS9 and EpSIO, are E. coicoides, while EpS3 and EpS8 at other line of family tree and might be E. fuscoguttatus