Mussel metabolomics - Species discrimination and provenance determination

This study has undertaken a metabolomic assessment of Australian blue mussels, (Mytilus galloprovincialis). A comparison to the New Zealand green lipped mussel (Perna canaliculus) was also made. The aqueous metabolomes were investigated by NMR and the lipid metabolomes by NMR and GC/MS. There are clear metabolic differences between the species M. galloprovincialis and P. canaliculus though this may be due to environmental factors as well as genetic differences. There is also significant variation between the M galloprovincialis samples collected from two different sites within Port Phillip Bay Victoria. These results indicate that metabolomics approaches could be useful for provenance determination for mussels and could be developed into a tool useful for fisheries and food agencies to trace mussel products. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.