Sequence analysis of mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene can identify meat species.

In this study, sequence analysis of mitochondrial 12S rRNA has been applied for meat species identification. The procedure involves polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a fragment of mitochondrial (mt) 12S rRNA gene and sequencing of amplicons. Amplified product of mt 12S rRNA gene was 456 bp in size. Species sequenced include cattle (Bos indicus), buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), sheep (Ovis aries), goat (Capra hircus) and mithun (Bos frontalis). Sequences were compared with the reported sequences of low land anoa (Bubalus depressicornis), yak (Bos grunniens) and pig (Sus scrofa). There was no effect of routinely used additives or cooking temperature (72, 90, 120 and 180 °C) on the efficacy of PCR amplification. The closely related species like cattle and buffalo, sheep and goat could also be differentiated decisively by sequence analysis. Sequencing and analysis of mt 12S rRNA gene was, hence, found to be an ideal, authentic and unambiguous qualitative method for meat species identification.