ABSTRACT
Shrimps and prawns are quite nutritious and provide quality protein, omega-3 fatty acids, certain antioxidants,vitamins, and minerals like iodine. Therefore, they are healthy food for human consumption. In order to findout fish fraud in value-added products, in this study, six frozen shrimp species packed and sold by differentcommercial companies were purchased, correctly identified using DNA barcoding of mt-COI gene, and thesequences were authenticated properly with the GenBank. The genomic DNA isolated from frozen shrimpsamples showed greater than 10 kb. Their amplified products showed 564–770 bp of mt-COI gene. The BLASTresults for the labeled frozen shrimp sample Litopenaeus vannamei showed maximum similarity (99%–100%)with the same species sequences available with NCBI database. Five unlabeled sample sequences (two samplestaken from two independent packets, and three samples taken from one mixed shrimp packet) showed maximumsimilarity with the sequences available in the NCBI database and exactly identified as Fenneropenaeusmerguiensis, Penaeus monodon, Fenneropenaeus indicus, Penaeus semisulcatus, and P. monodon, respectively.These six sequences showed more variable amino acid sites than the identical and similar amino acid residueswithin themselves. The AT biases (61.5%–67.51%, P. semisulcatus and P. monodon taken from unlabeledmixed packet) and GC biases (32.9%–38.6%, P. monodon and P. semisulcatus) varied among these six speciessequences, which indicated less NUMTs gene. The interspecies divergence rate calculated for these six speciesranged between 0.434 and 3.401 (L. vennamei vs. F. indicus, and F. merguiensis vs. P. monodon, taken fromunlabeled independent packet). Thus, it is recommended that DNA barcoding of mt-COI gene can be used toidentify any unlabeled or labeled shrimp/prawn/seafood available in the market to avoid fish fraud