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Chilean mussel, Mytilus chilensis. (Photo: Xvazquez/CC BY-SA 3.0)
Chilean native mussel’s scientific name validated
CHILE
Tuesday, November 07, 2017, 02:30 (GMT + 9)
After five years of study, two professors from the University of Chile (UChile) published an article in an international journal about the Chilean mussel, better known as "chorito", which validates the scientific name of this mollusk.
Since 2012 researchers María Angélica Larraín and Cristián Araneda, from the schools of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Agronomic Sciences of UChile, respectively, are working on the identification of the native mussel species from the Chilean coasts.
Prior to this work, there were not enough diagnostic tools to differentiate Mytilus chilensis from the other commercial species of mussels. It was so thanks to the allocation of the Fondecyt Regular project 1130302, Fondef ID16I10013 and the collaboration of the US researcher of the NGO Columbia River InterTribal Fish Commission, Shawn Narum, and together with doctors Roman Wenne and Malgorzata Zbawicka, of the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and New Zealand professor Jonathan Gardner of the University of Victoria, the two Chilean academics managed to publish an article in the journal Evolutionary Applications, which validates the name Mytilus chilensis for the native mussel off the coasts of Chile.
For Professor Larraín this fact constitutes "a claim" achieved with the work being developed in molecular traceability of the Chilean mussel, "with the support of different sources: the national mussel farming industry (Amichile), the local authority (SUBPESCA) and also from European diagnostic laboratories."
Chile is currently the world's leading mussel exporter. According to the Regional Strategic Program for the Mussel Farming Industry, 69 per cent of Chilean mussel exports are directed to European markets such as Spain, France, Italy, as well as Russia and the United States.
The European Union (EU) is the main market for this product, but it has strict regulations on labelling marine products. Professor Larraín emphasizes that in this place "it is mandatory to declare on the label the scientific name of the products marketed", which is why European buyers often find it difficult to identify the species with the available DNA tests.
Professor Araneda adds that "Chilean products have always declared Mytilus chilensis, a name that now has a scientific basis, based on cutting-edge genomic tools." Besides, he maintains that this research has had an important repercussion in the industry, from where "they have pointed out it will have a positive impact on the commercialization of the national mussels".
editorial@seafood.media
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