VOLUME 6 NUMBER 2 (July to December 2013)
Philipp. Sci. Lett. 2013 6 (2) 220-224
available online: November 22, 2013
* Corresponding author
Email Address: mudjiesantos@yahoo.com
Submitted: April 18, 2013
Revised: August 20, 2013
Accepted: August 21, 2013
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Species identification of "padas"from fermented fish paste or"bagoong" using DNA barcodes
by Altair B. Agmata, Angelli Marie Jacynth M. Asis,and Mudjekeewis D. Santos*Genetic Fingerprinting Laboratory, National Fisheries Research and Development Institute,101 Mother Ignacia St., Quezon City, 1103 Philippines
In the Philippines, juvenile/fry fisheries have always beenan important industry. But, despite the benefits thesefisheries can provide, they suffer from lack of propermanagement. The "padas" is one of the highly sought aftersiganid fry resource, especially in Northern Luzon.However, the establishment of the true identity of "padas" hasnot been done and, consequently, the possibility of appropriatemanagement action has been limited. Here, where we used DNAbarcoding, we report that "padas" from a fermented fish paste"Cristal Sky Bagoong" bought from Pozorrubio, Pangasinan iscomposed of at least two species of Siganus, namely S.fuscescens and S. spinus. This information is crucial in raisingawareness of which specific resources should be targeted by thefisheries industry and it provides an initiative towards evokingproper management efforts for the sustainability of juvenilefisheries. We also demonstrate that DNA barcoding is a powerfultool in identifying fish species even in fermented form.