Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute (vTI), Institute of Forest Genetics, Sieker Landstrasse 2, D-22927 Grosshansdorf, Germany.
Forensic Sci Int Genet. 2012 Jul;6(4):487-93. doi: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2011.11.002. Epub 2011 Dec 9.
Illegal logging and associated trade are the cause of many economic and ecological problems both in producer and in consumer countries. There are an increasing number of national and international regulations in place that call for efficient timber tracking systems. We present results of a pilot study of a DNA-based method to control the geographical origin of timber in forest concessions in Cameroon. We addressed genetic differentiation at five nuclear microsatellite loci in seven sapelli (Entandrophragma cylindricum, Meliaceae) populations located in three forest concessions in Eastern Cameroon. In the framework of a blind test, seven anonymous timber sample sets were analysed at three microsatellite loci and compared to the genetic reference data of the forest concessions in Cameroon. Our results show that genetic differentiation was low within and among concessions. Combining the results of Bayesian genetic assignment method and exclusion test, we could determine that the timber stemmed or did not stem from the focus forest concession in six out of the seven blind sample sets. We further discuss the accuracy of the presented method and draw conclusions for a better sampling and genotyping strategy. Our work provides clear evidence that the use of genetic fingerprints is a useful tool to fight against illegal logging.
非法采伐和相关贸易是生产者和消费者国家许多经济和生态问题的根源。越来越多的国家和国际法规要求建立有效的木材跟踪系统。我们介绍了在喀麦隆森林特许经营权中使用基于 DNA 的方法控制木材地理来源的试点研究结果。我们在喀麦隆东部三个森林特许经营权中，对位于七个 sapelli（Entandrophragma cylindricum，Meliaceae）种群中的五个核微卫星基因座的遗传分化进行了研究。在一项盲测中，我们在三个微卫星基因座分析了七个匿名木材样本集，并将其与喀麦隆森林特许经营权的遗传参考数据进行了比较。我们的结果表明，在特许经营权内和特许经营权之间，遗传分化程度较低。结合贝叶斯遗传分配方法和排除测试的结果，我们可以确定在七个盲测样本集中的六个样本集中，木材来自或不来自重点森林特许经营权。我们进一步讨论了所提出方法的准确性，并为更好的采样和基因分型策略得出结论。我们的工作清楚地表明，使用遗传指纹是打击非法采伐的有用工具。
