Distinction of the Skin Flukes Benedenia seriolae and Neobenedenia girellae Infecting Seriola spp. by PCR-RFLP Assay

Abstract

We developed a PCR-RFLP method to distinguish Benedenia seriolae and Neobenedenia girellae, both infecting amberjacks Seriola spp. more precisely than a morphological method. ​PCR products of 28S rRNA and COX1 were digested by Cla I and EcoR I, respectively. ​For all individuals of B. seriolae, the digestions split each of the PCR products into two fragments. ​On the other hand, although the products of most of the N. girellae samples were digested by neither the enzymes, only PCR products of 28S rRNA gene of three of the individuals were split into three fragments, suggesting they were the hybrid between the two species.