MOLECULAR APPROACH FOR VALIDATION OF Lutjanus lutjanus AND Lutjanus vitta FROM TERENGGANU WATERS

The Snapper is a fish that belongs to the family Lutjanidae and the order Perciformes. It can be discovered in tropical and subtropical mangrove habitats and reefs from depths ranging from 1 m to 500 m. Lutjanus lutjanus and Lutjanus vitta are two snappers found inhibiting Malaysia’s coastal waters, including Terengganu. A total of 100 Lutjanid samples with the admixture of varieties of freshness grade were collected from 11 sampling sites that consist of landing ports and fish markets. Note that external morphological examination based on the body stripes’ colour led to the identification of 30 samples of L. lutjanus and 30 samples of L. vitta. The samples were first identified via morphometric and meristic characterisation, with 39 morphological characters measured, and seven meristic characters were counted. 50 samples were successfully identified as L. lutjanus (n = 25) and L. vitta (n = 25) via morphometric and meristic identification. However, five samples of L. lutjanus with soft dorsal fin counts and five samples of L. vitta with the number of gill rakers did not follow the range stated by the previous study. These 10 samples were further analysed using molecular identification utilising the CO1 gene. Consequently, the constructed phylogenetic tree using the Neighbour Joining method with the Kimura-2 Parameter (K2P) model indicates that both species were divided into clades. Furthermore, the molecular approach indicated five samples were validated as L. Lutjanus while another five samples were L. vitta, with a 99% identical percentage. For future research, it is recommended to use fresh samples, increase the number of samples from other states, and continue to validate the identity via DNA barcoding using the CO1 gene.