It's been used to put murderers in jail, and now DNA analysis has brought to justice a Toronto company that tried to import a delicacy blamed for killing endangered fish.

Caviar Centre Inc. was convicted on Nov. 14 of unlawfully importing sturgeon caviar into Canada from Turkey without a permit after tests at a Peterborough, Ont., lab revealed the eggs were from rare, protected species.

What is mitochondrial DNA? Most of our DNA and the DNA of other animals is found in a part of each cell called the nucleus. But some DNA is also found in organelles — miniature "organs" within each cell — called mitochondria, which provide cells with energy. While DNA in the nucleus is a mixture of DNA from two different parents — a mother an a father — mitochondria and their DNA are inherited only from the mother. Because of that, within a single species, "all individuals will have very, very similar or exactly the same" mitochondrial DNA — at least in the section of DNA that was examined in the sturgeon caviar, said Kristyne Wozney of Trent University's Natural Resources and DNA Profiling Centre. "In that sense, it's very good for ... species identification."

A Brampton, Ont., judge ruled that the company must pay a fine of $3,000. Authorities also seized from the company 126 kilograms of caviar worth about $305,000, which will be destroyed, an Environment Canada news release said.

Sturgeon caviar is prized as a delicacy, but it can only be obtained by killing breeding females. Many caviar-producing species have grown extremely rare and the sale of their eggs is highly restricted under Canadian and international law.

Environment Canada officers began investigating the company in late 2004 after learning that large quantities of caviar were coming through Pearson International Airport.

They suspected that the source of the caviar might be an endangered type of sturgeon rather than the more common species listed on the import permits.

Caviar worth $150 an ounce

In April 2005, they sent samples of the eggs to be analyzed at Trent University's Natural Resources and DNA Profiling Centre.

The mitochondrial DNA in the eggs was analyzed by Kristyne Wozney, 26, who has been working at the centre for three years and is also a graduate student at the university, said a news release Thursday from the university.

Wozney found that the eggs belonged to three rare protected sturgeon species that live in the Caspian Sea — the beluga, sevruga and osetra — whose caviar can fetch up to $150 per ounce in Toronto.

The company's permits stated that the caviar was from the kaluga sturgeon, a more common species from the Amur River in Mongolia whose caviar is worth only $45 an ounce.

Based on the results, Environment Canada officials determined that the company's permits were falsified — a finding upheld by an Ontario judge.

Charges against the company's owner, Mark Omidi of Richmond Hill, were withdrawn after the company's conviction.

Environment Canada estimates that the black market for caviar from endangered Caspian Sea sturgeon species was worth $200 million to $500 million worldwide in 2005, partly because endangered species legislation has barely been enforced in that part of the world since the breakup of the Soviet Union.