Ivory identification by DNA profiling of cytochrome b gene.
Ivory can be visually identified in its native form as coming from an elephant species; however, determining from which of the three extant elephant species a section of ivory originates is more problematic. We report on a method that will identify and distinguish the protected and endangered elephant species, Elephas maximus or Loxodonta sp. To identify the species of elephant from ivory products, we developed three groups of nested PCR amplifications within the cytochrome b gene that generate amplification products using highly degraded DNA isolated from confiscated ivory samples dating from 1995. DNA from a total of 382 out of 453 ivory samples were successfully isolated and amplified leading to species identification. All sequences were searched against GenBank and found to match with E. maximus and Loxodonta sp. with at least 99% similarity. The samples that were tested came from eight Asian elephants, 14 African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis), and 360 African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana). This study demonstrates a high success rate in species identification of ivory by a nested PCR approach within the cytochrome b gene which provides the necessary information for the protection of endangered species conservation.
Lee
James Chun-I
JC
Department of Forensic Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, No.1 Jen Ai Road Section 1, Taipei, 100, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Hsieh
Hsing-Mei
HM
Huang
Li-Hung
LH
Kuo
Yi-Chen
YC
Wu
Jane-Hong
JH
Chin
Shih-Chien
SC
Lee
An-Hsing
AH
Linacre
Adrian
A
Tsai
Li-Chin
LC
D000818:Animals; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003415:Crime; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics*; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods*; D003804:Dentin / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004606:Elephants / Q000235:genetics*; D006239:Haplotypes; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013045:Species Specificity
D045303:Cytochromes b