Genomic and proteomic techniques for species identification of meat and seafood products are being
widely used. In this study, a genomic approach was used to differentiate Pandalus borealis (the Northern
shrimp), which belongs to the superfamily Pandaloidea, from 30 crustaceans consisting of 19 commercially
relevant prawns/shrimps species that belong to the superfamily Penaeoidea, which include the
families Penaeidae and Solenoceridae, and 11 other crustacean species, including prawns, shrimps, lobsters,
and crabs. For this purpose, a polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism
(PCR–RFLP) method was designed based on the amplification of the 16S rRNA/tRNAVal/12S rRNA mitochondrial
regions using the primers 16S-CruF and 16S-CruR. The 966-bp PCR products were produced
and cleaved with the restriction enzymes AluI, TaqI, and HinfI, which provided species-specific restriction
patterns. In addition, a proteomic approach, based on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization
time-of-flight (MALDI–TOF) and electrospray ionization–ion trap (ESI–IT) mass spectrometry, was used
to identify and characterize new P. borealis-specific peptides that could be useful as potential markers
of this species in protein-based detection methods. To our knowledge, this is the first time a molecular
method has been successfully applied to identify a wide range of prawn and shrimp species, including
P. borealis, for either whole individuals or processed products. However, validation of the methods
proposed here is required by applying them to a larger sample of individuals from different populations
and geographic origins in order to avoid mainly false-negative results.