Taxonomic studies of the cultured species of Crassosstrea sp.in South China waters

The Jinjiang oyster is one of the most important and main farming species in China. It has a 700-year history in South China waters. Based on the color of its flesh, two forms of Jinjiang oyster are widely recognized and referred to as the "red oyster" and "white oyster" by farmer lived in the Pearl River delta. Their shell morphologies are so similar that the identity of the cultured species of Jinjiang oyster in South China waters has been discussed for many years. Traditional methods could not solve their taxonomy entirely, such as morphology and anatomy. At present, the evident progress in Jinjiang oyster′s discrimination has been acquired since some molecular biological technologies are used to be classified. The paper summarized the major research progress on taxonomic and molecular biology studies of Jinjiang oyster. The synthesis results show: The Jinjiang oyster is a hybrid of 3 species including "red oyster" not yet be named and "white oyster", which include Hong Kong cultured oyster Crassosstrea hongkongensis and Suminoe oyster C.ariakensis.