1Graduate School of Bioresources, Mie University, Tsu, Mie 514-8507, 2Seikai National Fisheries Research Institute, Fisheries Research Agency, Taira, Nagasaki 851-2213, 3Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8564, Japan
In order to identify the Corbicula clam species and its origin, the partial nucleotide sequence (437bp) of mitochondrial 16S rDNA was determined in Corbicula specimens collected from Japan, Korea and China. A large nucleotide substitution number (5.26-6.41%) was observed between C. japonica and other species. Although nucleotide sequence differences between C. japonica samples from Japan and those from Korea were small (0-1.14％), very little haplotype was shared in common between the Japanese and Korean samples.