Abstract
According to recent reports, shell morphology is unreliable for the identification of oysters because of the high phenotypic plasticity of these bivalves. Using COI DNA barcoding and sperm morphology, we reinvestigated the species validity of wild Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas habituating the Peter the Great Bay (Sea of Japan). DNA barcoding confirmed the species validity of samples collected. Application of the single sperm pattern was not possible for species identification due to pronounced sperm plasticity being found. Six sperm morphs were discovered in the testes of each oyster collected. The amount of abundant sperm morphs and the type of the most dominant sperm pattern are particular to geographical localities that are individual depending on the environmental factors. Ecological monitoring of marine areas and commercially assigned intraspecific geo-authentification of the Pacific oyster seems possible based on the analysis of this species’ heterogenic sperm. Further work will be needed to test if sperm heterogeneity exists in other Ostreidae species and if heterogenic sperms could be used for interspecific analysis.
Highlights
The Pacific shore in the far eastern region of Russia (Primorye) is a habitat for the wild Pacific oyster that is not an object of commercial fishing and represents a natural reserve of this commercially valuable bivalve mollusc
Considering that in some cases the sperm structure is used for bivalve mollusc identification [7], it seems reasonable to investigate if the morphology of spermatozoa could be used as a feature for the identification of the Pacific oysters in Primorye
Identification of C. gigas species validity by analysis of c oxidase subunit I gene (COI) gene During our analysis, the phylogenetic trees were built using sequences obtained for our samples and sequences that were chosen for current study from the GenBank database (NCBI) (Figs. 2, 3)
Summary
The Pacific shore in the far eastern region of Russia (Primorye) is a habitat for the wild Pacific oyster that is not an object of commercial fishing and represents a natural reserve of this commercially valuable bivalve mollusc. This oyster has been identified as Crassostrea gigas based on shell morphology [1,2,3]. Shell appearance is not a reliable feature for oyster identification because of high phenotypic plasticity in these bivalves [4, 5]. Considering that in some cases the sperm structure is used for bivalve mollusc identification [7], it seems reasonable to investigate if the morphology of spermatozoa could be used as a feature for the identification of the Pacific oysters in Primorye
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