**6. Conclusion**

We developed a DNA methodology based on PCR amplification and sequencing analysis of the mitochondrial 16S rDNA gene, in order to discriminate two different taxa of the family Pectinidae - *Flexopecten glaber* and *Flexopecten proteus* - and for a population study of both taxa. Fifty polymorphic nucleotide sites and fifty one different haplotypes were revealed in total. The majority of the genetic variation (96.98%) was distributed within populations. The levels of haplotype and nucleotide diversity were relatively high for both taxa, probably due to the large effective population sizes and the good population status. No species specific position was found and the two highly frequent haplotypes are shared between taxa, suggesting possible hybridization between them. Genetic distance between *F*. *glaber* and *F*. *proteus* was D = 0.005 and no genetic differentiation was revealed among taxa, when pooling together samples from different localities. Our results show that *F*. *glaber* and *F*. *proteus* are conspecific, which is in agreement with the latest classification.
