Italian Journal of Food Safety 2014; volume 3:4521 Application of DNA barcoding oxidase (COI) gene. This gene codes for one part of the terminal enzyme of the mithocondr- Correspondence: Tiziana Civera, Dipartimento di for controlling of the species ial respiratory chain. The COI gene has been Scienze Veterinarie, Università degli Studi di from Octopus genus chosen as a universal molecular target since it Torino, largo Braccini 2, 10095 Grugliasco (TO), allows the design of universal, r obust and Italy. Francesco Debenedetti,1 functional primers for almost all the members Tel. +39.011.67092 - Fax: +39.011.6709224. E-mail:
[email protected] Alessandra Dalmasso,1 of the animal Phyla (Folmer et al., 1994). The Maria Teresa Bottero,1 effectiveness of this fragment for the identifi- Key words: DNA barcoding, Octopus spp., Maurizio Gilli,2 Stefano Gili,2 cation of species has been demonstrated for Commercial frauds. Valentina Tepedino,3 Tiziana Civera1 several animal species, from vertebrates to invertebrates (Waugh, 2007; Ward and Conflict of interests: the authors declare no 1Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie, Holmes, 2007). Recently, this technique was potential conflict of interests. Università degli Studi di Torino, recognised as the best method in forensics for 2 Received for publication: 8 July 2014. Grugliasco (TO); ASLTO1, Torino; species identification, and was proposed by the 3Eurofishmarket, Bologna, Italy Revision received:. - United States Food and Drug Administration Accepted for publication: 15 September 2014. (USFDA) as the methodology for the authenti- cation of commercial fish products (Dawnay et This work is licensed under a Creative Commons al., 2007). The US agency has also the inten- Attribution 3.0 License (by-nc 3.0).