Mytilus galloprovincialis-type foot-protein-1 alleles occur at low frequency among mussels in the Dutch Wadden Sea

The presence of M. galloprovincialis-type genes among the population of mussels in the Dutch Wadden Sea, historically described as M edulis, was assessed. We applied the molecular technique in which a fragment of the gene coding for an adhesive protein of the byssus of mussels is amplified by PCR and assayed for length using electrophoresis. Among 321 individual mussels collected in August-October 2001 at 14 sites (5 intertidal, 9 subtidal) widely dispersed over the Dutch Wadden Sea, 6 specimens (collected at 5 sites) were found that showed a heterozygote genotype with both the M edulis- and t... Mehr ...