title: A simple and accurate method to sex savannah, forest and Asian elephants using noninvasive sampling techniques.
abstract: We report the development of a reliable and efficient method for molecular sexing of all extant elephant taxa. We developed primers that amplify two short Y-specific fragments (SRY1 and AMELY2) and one longer X-specific fragment (PLP1), developed from elephant sequences in one multiplex PCR. All fragments were designed to be short (< 200 basepairs) for use with degraded DNA and to be 50 basepairs apart to optimize visualization on agarose gels or as electropherograms. The multiplex PCR method matched sexes for at least 97.9% of the noninvasive savannah elephant samples and produced the expected female/male banding patterns for 14 African forest and 11 Asian elephant samples. We found this method to be more robust, efficient and less prone to contamination than previously developed sexing methods for elephants.
authors.affiliation: Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, PO Box 37012, Washington, DC 20013, USA. mahlering@tnc.org
authors.forename: Marissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ahlering
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hailer
authors.forename: Melissa T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Foley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004606:Elephants / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D024282:Genes, sry / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018991:Myelin Proteolipid Protein / Q000235:genetics; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012730:Sex Chromosomes / Q000235:genetics*; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D018991:Myelin Proteolipid Protein