Determining the species distribution of Mytilus edulis, M. galloprovincialis, and M. trossulus across different vendors in the Greater Vancouver area in British Columbia

Abstract

This study aims to determine the species distribution of mussels across different vendors
in the Greater Vancouver area in British Columbia. To evaluate such distribution, a cohort of 15
individual mussels were gathered from 5 vendors and screened for a genetic barcode that
corresponds to different variants in one of their adhesive protein genes. The test consisted of the
isolation of mussel DNA and subsequent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification to
obtain amplicons of different sizes that can be attributed to a given species. Our results indicate
that 11 of 15 samples could be successfully identified as either M. trosullus, M. galloprovincialis
or M. edulis and that the invasive species M. galloprovincialis was the most abundant with 47%
of confirmed individuals. M. trossulus is the only endemic species to the coast of BC with 20%
in abundance.