Short communicationDifferentiating collagens based on mitochondrion 12SrRNA gene

•The identity between different collagens is not 100%.•There almost no differences in AGE electrophoretograms of different collagens.•PCR-based detection methods can trace the species of aquatic collagens.

Aquatic collagens are one of the main collagens sold in the market due to superior physicochemical and biological activities. In this work, the species of three types of aquatic and commercial collagens were identified by molecular biotechnology. After isolating DNA from bovine, porcine and three types of aquatic animals, DNA was dissolved in a storage buffer. The animals' mitochondrion 12SrRNA sequences were downloaded from the GenBank database, and three pairs of primers that can be used to detect the aquatic collagens were designed by Primer Premier 6 and evaluated by Oligo 7. Analysis of the polymerase chain reaction and agarose electrophoresis showed that the fragments were 440, 307, 112 and 270 bp, respectively, thereby enabling successful detection of the collagen species. Results indicate that PCR-based detection methods can also suitably trace the species of aquatic collagens.