Molecular genetics and the management and conservation of marine organisms

Biochemical and molecular species identification techniques have a broad ra nge of applications in the management and conservation of marine organisms. While species boundaries are not always clearly defined, phylogeneticists utilise autapomorphic characters to distinguish phylogenetic species. Genet ic markers discriminate between marine taxa when traditional morphological distinctions are unclear. The applications of these techniques can be divid ed into four general categories. Firstly, compliance enforcement, which oft en depends on genetic identification techniques to enable officials to iden tify the species to which regulations pertain. Secondly, quality control ap plications, to allow for the testing of marine products to guard against fr audulent substitution with less valuable species, which is particularly per tinent since processing often obliterates identifiable features. Thirdly, a variety of applications to ecological and life-history studies and conserv ation management are reported. Here, the genetic identification techniques of species from cryptic life-cycle stages or of morphologically indistinct species are an indispensable tool for marine scientists, conservators and m anagers. Lastly, the application of genetic techniques for sourcing populat ion origin is briefly discussed. The biochemical and molecular techniques a pplied to species identification all exploit phenotypic or genotypic polymo rphisms that are sampled using either tertiary level protein based methods or primary level DNA based methods. In this review, examples of the applica tions along with the total protein, allozyme, serological, PCR and other DN A based methodologies are briefly described and some generalities with rega rd to their use are presented.