Abstract:
Most of the Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, 70% of the protein
sources come from fish. Fish and aquatic organisms constitute a major portion of
Malaysian diets. The snakehead fishes play an important role among the freshwater
food fish species. There are six species of snakehead fish in Malaysia, namely
Channa marulioides, C. melasoma, C. lucius, C. gachua, C. micropeltes, and C.
striatus. Some aspects of morphology and molecular genetics of these species were
conducted in this study. The main objectives of this study were (i) to taxonomy
snakehead species of Malaysia based on morphology, (ii) to detect genetic variation
among snakehead species in Peninsular Malaysia using RAPD, (iii) to definite the
phylogeny of Channidae using mitochondria (iv) to design specific primer (Microsatellite method) for snakehead species.
