A simple and inexpensive molecular method for sexing and identification of the forensic samples of elephant origin.
The population of the Asian elephant is being dramatically reduced due to poaching of the ivory from the male. As poaching occurs in remote forests, it often takes weeks or longer for it to be discovered and it is therefore often very difficult to determine the sex of the decomposed body. Data suggest that in the recent past, over 2000 male elephants have been poached in South India. We have developed a technique based on molecular markers to determine that the carcass is an elephant and that it is a male. Using DNA sequence information from Genbank, we have developed two primer pairs: one for the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the other for the sex-determining region of Y chromosome (SRY) gene of the Indian elephant. After PCR amplification of known elephant DNA, we found that the mtDNA was common in both males and females, whereas the SRY-specific amplicon was observed only in the male.
Gupta
Sandeep K
SK
Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad 500 007, India.
Thangaraj
Kumarasamy
K
Singh
Lalji
L
D000818:Animals; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000032:analysis*; D004606:Elephants / Q000235:genetics*; D005554:Forensic Medicine / Q000379:methods; D005819:Genetic Markers; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity; D014998:Y Chromosome
D017931:DNA Primers; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D005819:Genetic Markers