Chengmin  Sun¹ , Rudi  Mai²

1 Tropical Marine Fisheries Research Center, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China
2 Tropical Biological Resources Research Center‌, Hainan Institute of Tropical Agricultural Resources, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China
Author    Correspondence author
Bioscience Methods, 2025, Vol. 16, No. 3   
Received: 21 Mar., 2025    Accepted: 29 Apr., 2025    Published: 19 May, 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The genus Haliotis includes a variety of marine shellfish with important economic and ecological values. In recent years, the mitochondrial genome has received extensive attention in the study of abalone systematic classification and species identification due to its unique advantages. This study systematically sorted out the structural characteristics of the abalone mitochondrial genome, the genetic variation pattern and the evolutionary relationship between different species, focusing on the analysis of the role of SNP and non-synonymous mutations in adaptive evolution. Through the construction of a whole-genome phylogenetic tree, the lineage differentiation and geographical isolation correlation within the genus Haliotis were revealed, and the application potential of mitochondrial DNA markers (such as COI gene) in rapid species identification and traceability detection was evaluated. Combined with case analysis, the mitochondrial variation characteristics of abalone species in the southeast coast of China were compared, the genetic differences between introduced populations and local populations were evaluated, and the disputes over the classification of abalone in Japan, Australia and East Asia were discussed. The study shows that the evolutionary characteristics of the abalone mitochondrial genome are of great value for species identification, but different methods have their own advantages and limitations. This study aims to provide a basis for the systematic classification of the abalone genus, and to provide theoretical support for the scientific management of my country's abalone germplasm resources, the protection of genetic diversity and sustainable utilization, so as to improve the quality of abalone seed industry and ensure the ecological security of marine fisheries.

Abalone; Mitochondrial genome; Phylogeny; DNA barcode; Species identification