title: DNA profiling of orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) feces to prove descent and identity in wildlife animals.
abstract: In this study, orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus ssp.) DNA was extracted from excrements, obtained from individual zoo populations. To examine whether human short tandem repeat loci (STR) are suitable for the reconstruction of kinship in orangutans, nine STRs, commonly used in forensic studies in man and the amelogenin system, were amplified in a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach. Five of the nine human autosomal STRs in question amplified successfully in orangutans. Furthermore, the experiments revealed that orangutans possess allele distributions comparable to humans in these systems. Fragment length determination allowed kinship structures to be reconstructed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, Germany. uimmel@gwdg.de
authors.forename: U D
authors.initials: UD
authors.lastname: Immel
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hummel
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Herrmann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics*; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D005243:Feces / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011148:Pongo pygmaeus / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004247:DNA