Abstract:
The serranid subfamily {Epinephelus genus), popularly known as grouper, is one of
the most economically important fishes in Southeast Asian countries. In this study,
RAPD in association with PCR was employed to determine the genetic variability
and to establish the RAPD fingerprinting of groupers {Epinephelus spp.). A total of
100 individuals of E. tauvina from six populations taken from Indo-Malaysian waters
and 36 individuals of E. merra and E. areolatus taken from Makassar Strait, South
Sulawesi were studied. Three tissue preservatives and four DNA extraction
techniques were employed to find the best preservative and DNA extraction
technique for grouper. A series of optimization experiments of PCR-RAPD protocol
were conducted. Out of the 34 screened random primers, ten primers were selected
for further analysis.
