NOTE Garcfa-Rodriguez et al.: Mitochondrial DNA markers to identify Panulirus spp. 
211 
products must be identified. This is especially the case 
when lobster products of unknown origin have to be 
analyzed if there is suspicion that the lobster was ob- 
tained by illegal fishing, as in the case of important 
protected species, such as sea turtles (Moore et al., 
2003). 
Conclusions 
We used the nucleotide variation of two mtDNA frag- 
ments from adult spiny lobster samples to find molecu- 
lar marker applications for species discrimination. The 
RFLP and multiplex-PCR protocols developed in this 
study allow for correct discrimination of three commer- 
cial lobster species inhabiting the Pacific coast of Mexico. 
Application of both types of molecular markers in the 
identification of lobster larvae showed concordance and 
the potential to discriminate between phyllosoma species 
during early stages. Molecular identification of larvae 
was inaccurate with our previous assignment based on 
morphological criteria. Thus, the use of morphological 
characteristics in phyllosoma larvae can be misleading 
for identification to the species level because anatomical 
parts can easily be damaged during collection. This new 
information on genetic identification of species at the 
larval stage is of wide interest because studies focused 
on taxonomic and ecological revisions require accurate 
species identification. 
Acknowledgments 
We thank E. Espino and M. Iacchei for providing adult 
lobster samples from Jalisco, Mexico and California, 
USA, respectively. Research was supported by proj- 
ect SEMARNAT-2004-C01-153 to G. Ponce-Dfaz. Three 
anonymous reviewers helped to improve the manuscript. 
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