A species-specific microsatellite marker to discriminate blue catfish, channel catfish and F1 hybrids

Abstract

The F1 hybrids of female channel catfish × male blue catfish contain many desirable traits for commercial production. But hybrid catfish cannot always be easily distinguished from channel catfish. It is also difficult to identify fingerlings and fillets of blue catfish, channel catfish and F1 hybrids. The present research showed that a trinucleotide microsatellite in the myostatin (MSTN) gene had two species-specific alleles allowing the identification of blue catfish, channel catfish, and the F1 hybrids. This molecular marker will be used to identify fingerlings and products among blue catfish, channel catfish and F1 hybrids.