IOES, WWF and TIO Collaborators published in SCI Tier 1 Journal for advancing DNA barcoding to elucidate elasmobranch biodiversity in Malaysian waters
Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES) would like to congratulate Dr Kar-Hoe Loh, Dr Amy Then, Dr Chui Wei Bong, Dr Wenjia Hu, Dr Aijun Wang, Dr Jianguo Du from the Third Institute of Oceanography (TIO), Ministry of Natural Resources, China and Ms Serena Adam from World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature Malaysia scientists collaboration for publishing a research article in SCI Tier 1 journal Animals.
Dr Loh led this research from the Universiti Malaya, and Dr Du from the Third Institute of Oceanography (TIO) has been conducted along with World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature Malaysia. This study result was a part of PhD thesis of Mr Lim Kean Chong.
In the paper “Advancing DNA Barcoding to Elucidate Elasmobranch Biodiversity in Malaysian Waters”. One-third of shark and ray species are threatened due to overfishing, but a lack of information on each species makes conservation decisions difficult. To address this issue, we conducted a study to identify the different species of sharks and rays in Malaysian waters using DNA barcoding of the CO1 gene, akin to DNA fingerprinting for species. We collected 175 individuals between June 2015 and June 2022, randomly selecting up to six specimens from each species. We successfully generated DNA barcodes for 67 species belonging to 44 genera, 20 families, and 11 orders. Accurate species identification will improve species-specific catch landing data and accelerate the identification of use and illegal trade in Malaysia.
The article can be accessed at https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/6/1002
