Species and sex identification of the Korean goral (Nemorhaedus caudatus) by molecular analysis of non-invasive samples.
Korean long-tailed goral (Nemorhaedus caudatus) is one of the most endangered species in South Korea. However, detailed species distribution and sex ratio data on the elusive goral are still lacking due to difficulty of identification of the species and sex in the field. The primary aim of this study was to develop an economical PCR-RFLP method to identify species using invasive or non-invasive samples from five Korean ungulates: goral (N. caudatus), roe deer (Capreolus pygargus), feral goat (Capra hircus), water deer (Hydropotes inermis) and musk deer (Moschus moschiferus). The secondary aim was to find more efficient molecular sexing techniques that may be applied to invasive or non-invasive samples of ungulate species. We successfully utilized PCR-RFLP of partial mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (376 bp) for species identification, and sex-specific amplification of ZFX/Y and AMELX/Y genes for sexing. Three species (goral, goat and water deer) showed distinctive band patterns by using three restriction enzymes (XbaI, StuI or SspI). Three different sexing primer sets (LGL331/335 for ZFX/Y gene; SE47/48 or SE47/53 for AMELX/Y gene) produced sex-specific band patterns in goral, goat and roe deer. Our results suggest that the molecular analyses of non-invasive samples might provide us with potential tools for the further genetic and ecological study of Korean goral and related species.
Kim
Baek Jun
BJ
Conservation Genome Resource Bank for Korean Wildlife (CGRB), College of Veterinary Medicine and Brain Korea 21 Program for Veterinary Science, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea.
Lee
Yun-Sun
YS
An
Jung-hwa
JH
Park
Han-Chan
HC
Okumura
Hideo
H
Lee
Hang
H
Min
Mi-Sook
MS
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000032:analysis; D003670:Deer / Q000235:genetics; D006041:Goats / Q000235:genetics; D007723:Korea; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis / Q000379:methods*
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D045303:Cytochromes b