The potential of mitochondrial DNA markers and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism for domestic and wild species identification
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Date
2006-09-18
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Journal of Biotechnology
Abstract
Poaching is increasingly presenting challenge to conservational authorities in Africa. Accurate and
reliable methods for the identification of poached wildlife meat when morphological features are
missing, has been lacking in Africa. We describe a molecular based approach that has a potential of
serving as a tool for game and domestic meat identification in Africa. A mitochondrial (mt246) marker
and Rsa1 restriction enzyme were used in the PCR-RFLP species identification of game and domestic
meat. Species-specific reference DNA fragment patterns were obtained using fresh meat from ten major
wild herbivores, representing the highly targeted wild meat species in Tanzania and four domesticated
animal species. With the exception of the zebra, all species produced unique monomorphic RFLP
patterns that were species specific. These reference fragment patterns enabled identification of about
75% of unknown meat samples, demonstrating the ability of the technique in discriminating between
and among wild and domestic species. The results provide preliminary promising fingerprints which
need further validation for future use for the control of the up-surging bush meat trade in the continent.
Description
African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (18), pp. 1588-1593, 18 September 2006
Keywords
Mitochondrial DNA, PCR-RFLP, Poaching, Forensic,, Species identification