Development of Molecular Markers for the Identification of Bivalve Molluscan Larvae for Mariculture Applications

Abstract

newlineMariculture of Perna viridis (green mussel), Perna indica (brown mussel) and Crassostrea newlinemadrasensis (Indian backwater oyster) is getting popular in India but the productivity of this newlinesector is affected by inadequate supply of spats. The natural spat resources are the only viable newlineoption available to the bivalve farmers to meet the seed requirements. Early detection of the newlinelarvae of the three target species in the plankton samples collected from the coastal waters will be newlinehelpful to predict the time of spat settlement which is crucial for the successful spat collection newlineusing cultch materials. The present work deals with the development of DNA markers in the newlineform of Species Specific PCR (SSPCR) and Species Specific newlinenested PCR (SS n PCR) for the specific newlineand sensitive detection of the larvae of three target bivalves from unsorted plankton samples. newlineAnalysis of the experimental plankton samples using SS n PCR proved that the method can detect newlineeven a single veliger larva from a plankton biomass of 40mg. Similarly, SSPCR could be used to newlinedetect a minimum of 20 numbers of veliger larve from a plankton biomass of 40 mg. The SSPCR newlinecould also be used to assess the numerical density of the target bivalve larvae in coastal water newlineand it was possible to detect approximately 106 larvae in 1000 liters of water. The utility of newlineSSPCR and SS n PCR was also evaluated in the plankton samples collected from the coastal waters. newlineThe spat collectors placed in the study area were observed to have rich settlement of the target newlinebivalve larvae showing a positive correlation with the lab results obtained. Screening of the newlineplankton samples have proved that these methods can be effectively employed to detect the newlinepresence of the target bivalve larvae in the coastal waters and it can be used as a spat-fall newlineprediction tool to manage the spat collection process more effectively by the bivalve farmers