NOTE Purcell et al.: Genetic identification of salmonid prey from scat of Phoca vitulina nchardsi 



215 



cation was accomplished by sequencing of either the d-loop 

 or the COIII/ND3 region. RFLP analysis was performed 

 as described above with the following modifications: Bst 

 NI was excluded because it is redundant with Dpn II, 

 the enzyme amount was reduced to 0.4-1.0 units per 

 reaction, and incubation time did not exceed 2 hours. The 

 COIII/ND3 primers are specific to the family Salmonidae. 

 To test the possibility that the failure to obtain amplifica- 

 tion with the COIII/ND3 primers was due to morphologi- 

 cal misidentification of an Oncorhynchus species we used 

 the 16s primers that are conserved across a broad set of 



taxa from Platyhelminthes through Chordata ( Parker and 

 Kornfield, 1996). 



Results 



The COIII/ND3 and 16s sequences were confirmed for all 

 seven salmonid naturally present in the Pacific Northwest 

 (Figs. 1 and 2) and deposited in Genbank (COIII/ND3: 

 AF294827-AF294833; 16S: AF296341-AF296347). Two 

 chinook salmon were sequenced representing two Dpn II 



