Identification of the fish species of raw or cold-smoked salmon and salmon caviar by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis

Differentiation between ten salmonid fish species belonging to the genera Salmo, Oncorhynchus and Salvelinus was achieved by single strand conformation polymorphism analysis (SSCP) of PCR products of mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Amplicons (300-460 bp in size) of the genes for cytochrome b, parvalbumin and growth hormone gave species-specific patterns of single-stranded DNA in native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). The method was successfully used to identify products from raw or cold-smoked salmon, as well as from salmon roe.