title: A PCR-based assay for discriminating Cervus and Rangifer (Cervidae) antlers with mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms.
abstract: This study describes a method for discriminating Rangifer antlers from true Cervus antlers using agarose gel electrophoresis, capillary electrophoresis, quantitative real-time PCR, and allelic discrimination. Specific primers labeled with fluorescent tags were designed to amplify fragments from the mitochondrial D-loop genes for various Cervus subspecies and Rangifer tarandus differentially. A 466-bp fragment that was observed for both Cervus and Rangifer antlers served as a positive control, while a 270-bp fragment was specifically amplified only from Rangifer antlers. Allelic discrimination was used to differentiate between Cervus and Rangifer antlers, based on the amplification of specific alleles for both types of antlers. These PCR-based assays can be used for forensic and quantitative analyses of Cervus and Rangifer antlers in a single step, without having to obtain any sequence information. In addition, multiple PCR-based assays are more accurate and reproducible than a single assay for species-specific analysis and are especially useful in this study for the identification of original Cervus deer products from fraudulent Rangifer antlers.
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon 305-811, Korea.
authors.forename: Young Hwa
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Eung Soo
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Byong Seob
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: Seung-Eun
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Jin-Ah
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ryuk
authors.forename: Seong Wook
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Chae
authors.forename: Hye Won
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Go Ya
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Doo Won
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Seo
authors.forename: Mi Young
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D000999:Antlers / Q000502:physiology*; D001483:Base Sequence; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D003670:Deer / Q000235:genetics*; D004586:Electrophoresis / Q000662:veterinary; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial