THE USE OF RAPD-PCR AND PCR-RFLP MOLECULAR MARKERS TO GENETICALLY DISTINGUISH THE MORPHOLOGICALLY CLOSE TWO SPECIES OF METAPENAEUS GENUS FROM TWO DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL LOCATIONS( KAUR ABDULLAH & SHATT AL ARAB ) IN WATERS SOUTHERN OF IRAQ.

<p>RAPD-PCR and RFLP?PCR molecular markers were used to study the Genetic Characterization for two members in Metapenaeus genera of Penaeidae shrimps from two different environment southern of Iraq. Metapenaeus affinis which is in kaur Abdullah (salty water) but the second is suspected member (shrimp) is in Shatt al-Arab(freshwater) While the marine closely related organism in freshwater bodies. Unlike the marine pawn, it is small but has similar morphological characteristics like the marine counterpart. The results indicate that although Metapenaes genus share considerable external features except that the genetic heterogeneity at the DNA level was high in the two organisms. RAPD marker used 12 universal primers to detect monomorphic and polymorphic patterns to genetically distinguish differences between the two organisms whereas in RFLP marker the voucher DAAPV F7 in 16S rRNA gene was amplified using PCR technique the desired gene was digested by using the enzymes (TagI , SmI and HindIII) which produced different size and numbers of bands. Thus, the voucher DAAPV F7 in 16S rRNA gene proved to be a useful molecular marker to differentiate the studied Metapenaeus species , which makes the task easier of telling apart species that are morphologically very similar.