Identification of Epinephelus malabaricus and Epinephelus coioides using DNA markers

Using multi-molecular marker technologies and based on morphological criteria, the genetic relationship between Epinepheelus malabaricus and E.coioides was examined in the hope of resolving the long-standing issue of identifying these two species.Results showed that:(1) E.coioides and E.malabaricus should be identified as two species, the consistency of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b gene sequence between E.malabaricus and E.coioides is 94.4%, and the genetic similarity by AFLP was 0.753 9; (2) Hybridization exists between E.malabaricus and E.coioides, the specific RAPD and AFLP fragments are found to be useful in the identification of these two species, and the genetic properties (both with exterior and inheritance) of hybrid is significantly biased to the male parents; and (3) AFLP was a potentially powerful tool in constructing the genetic linkage map for these two groupers.