Pufferfish may be responsible for human intoxications due to the accumulation of a potentially lethal neurotoxin, called tetrodotoxin (TTX). While traditionally some species of Pufferfish are consumed in Japan, their marketing is banned in the EU. However, their illegal presence in mislabelled products has been reported. Moreover, some species of the genus Lagocephalus spread in the Mediterranean Sea during the last decades due to the Lessepsian migration phenomenon and they may represent a significant emerging risk within the European seafood chain. This study aimed at finding a suitable molecular marker for quickly identifying Lagocephalus species in fresh and processed products. All available sequences of COI and cytb mitochondrial genes were used to create different length datasets (long and short fragments) to be used to produce NJ trees depicting genetic relationships for Lagocephalus spp. On the basis of its higher variability, cytb gene was selected as the molecular target and 17 new complete sequences of 6 Lagocephalus species, deriving from reference samples, were produced and included in the datasets. Then, a primer pair for amplifying a 130bp cytb polymorphic fragment from all of the Lagocephalus spp. was designed for identifying sixteen mislabelled commercial products with degraded DNA containing pufferfish. Cytb dataset's phylogenetic analysis supported the most recent species classification of the Lagocephalus genus and highlighted the presence of toxic L. spadiceus in the products. The analysis of the proposed short fragment could represent a reliable tool to protect European consumers from the emerging risk associated to toxic Lagocephalus spp.

河豚可能是由于潜在的致死性神经毒素（河豚毒素（TTX））的积累而导致人中毒的。传统上在日本消费河豚的某些种类，但在欧盟禁止其销售。但是，据报导它们在标签错误的产品中非法存在。此外，属的一些种类Lagocephalus由于Lessepsian迁移现象在过去几十年期间，在地中海蔓延，他们可以代表欧洲海鲜链内的显著新兴风险。这项研究旨在寻找一种合适的分子标记物，以快速鉴定新鲜和加工产品中的人头草属物种。所有可用的COI和cytb序列线粒体基因被用于创建不同长度的数据集（长片段和短片段），以用于产生描绘Lagocephalus spp遗传关系的NJ树。基于其较高的变异性，选择cytb基因作为分子靶标，并从参考样品中提取了6个小头目物种的17个新完整序列，并将其包括在数据集中。然后，用引物对扩增来自所有的Lagocephalus spp的130bp cytb多态性片段。旨在鉴定含有降解的河豚DNA的十六种错误标签的商品。Cytb数据集的系统发育分析支持了最新的Lagocephalus属物种分类，并突出了产品中有毒斜纹乳杆菌的存在。对拟议中的短片段的分析可能代表了一种可靠的工具，可以保护欧洲消费者免受与有毒Lagocephalus spp相关的新出现风险的影响。