Comparison of european sardine (Sardina pilchardus, walbaum 1792) greek haplotypes with those found in the global distribution of the species

Abstract

The identification of fish stocks is the first step in management and conservation processes. The European Commission has established among others the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) protection label in order to identify an agricultural product, raw or processed, for which quality, reputation or other characteristics are linked to its geographical origin. In the present study, the Greek Sardina pilchardus haplotypes found with three mitochondrial segments (COI, cytb, D-loop), were compared with the ones previously submitted in the databases, to test the uniqueness of the discovered Greek haplotypes for a future PGI definition. For all the three mtDNA markers, the discovered Greek haplotypes were found to be common with species' haplotypes all over the world. These results reinforce the aspect that a single sardine individual cannot be classified as coming from a certain population (Mediterranean or Atlantic), as most of the data (present and former) support a single evolutionary unit for sardines. © 2021, ALÖKI Kft., Budapest, Hungary.