RFLP pattern determination for the invasive bivalves Limnoperna fortunei (Dunker, 1857) and Corbicula fluminea (Muller, 1774)

Abstract The golden mussel (Limnoperna fortunei) and Corbicula fluminea are considered well-established invasive species in the rivers of Brazil and South America. In addition to the environmental problems resulting from this invasion process, the economic issue, especially in hydroelectric dams, is very worrisome and has mobilized several types of studies on these invasive bivalves. The detection and identification of these organisms in their adult phase in the rivers is not a problem; however, the identification of bivalve larvae by usual morphological methods is difficult due to high similarity conserved in these stages. The use of PCR-RFLP has proven to be an efficient and agile molecular method that allowed the detection of different patterns in the agarose gel for the two bivalves tested. The gel pattern showed a 100 bp band for L. fortunei not detected for C. fluminea. Thus, it is possible to detect larvae of these species from water samples, which can be a powerful tool for environmental monitoring programs on aquatic invasive species.