Wang Bai-Shi, Wang Zhen-Long, Tian Jun-Dong, Cui Zhen-Wei, Lu Ji-Qi
Institute of Biodiversity and Ecology, Zhengzhou University, Kexue Dadao 100, Zhengzhou 450001, PR China.
Current address: Department of Wildlife Diseases, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Alfred-Kowalke-Straße 17, Berlin 10315, Germany.
Zool Stud. 2015 Jan 9;54:e8. doi: 10.1186/s40555-014-0100-9. eCollection 2015.
Within multi-male and multi-female mammalian societies, paternity assignment is crucial for evaluating male reproductive success, dominance hierarchy, and inbreeding avoidance. It is, however, difficult to determine paternity because of female promiscuity during reproduction. Noninvasive molecular techniques (e.g., fecal DNA) make it possible to match the genetic father to his offspring. In the current study, a troop of free-ranging Taihangshan macaques () in Mt. Taihangshan area, Jiyuan, China, was selected for studying the paternity. We successfully screened a set of microsatellite loci from fecal DNA and evaluated the efficiency of these loci for paternity testing using clearly recorded data of maternity.
The results showed that: 1) ten loci out of 18 candidate microsatellite loci were amplified successfully in the fecal samples of Taihangshan macaques. The error probability in maternity assignments and paternity testing was very low as indicated by their power of discrimination (0.70 to 0.95), power of exclusion (0.43 to 0.84), and the values of polymorphic information content ranging from 0.52 to 0.82; 2) the combined probability of exclusion in paternity testing for ten qualified loci was as high as 99.999%, and the combined probability of exclusion reached 99.99% when the seven most polymorphic loci were adopted; 3) the offspring were assigned to their biological mother correctly and also matched with their genetic father.
We concluded that the ten polymorphic microsatellite loci, especially a core set of seven most polymorphic loci, provided an effective and reliable tool for noninvasive paternity testing in free-ranging rhesus macaques.
在多雄多雌的哺乳动物群体中，确定父系关系对于评估雄性繁殖成功率、优势等级和避免近亲繁殖至关重要。然而，由于雌性在繁殖期间的滥交行为，确定父系关系较为困难。非侵入性分子技术（如粪便DNA）使得将基因父亲与其后代进行匹配成为可能。在本研究中，选取了中国济源太行山地区一群自由放养的太行山猕猴（ ）来研究父系关系。我们成功地从粪便DNA中筛选出一组微卫星位点，并利用清晰记录的母系数据评估了这些位点在亲子鉴定中的效率。
结果表明：1）18个候选微卫星位点中有10个在太行山猕猴的粪便样本中成功扩增。其判别力（0.70至0.95）、排除力（0.43至0.84）以及多态信息含量值在0.52至0.82之间，表明母系鉴定和亲子鉴定中的错误概率非常低；2）10个合格位点在亲子鉴定中的累积排除概率高达99.999%，采用7个多态性最高的位点时，累积排除概率达到99.99%；3）后代被正确地与其生母匹配，也与其基因父亲相匹配。
我们得出结论，这10个多态性微卫星位点，尤其是7个多态性最高的核心位点，为自由放养的恒河猴的非侵入性亲子鉴定提供了一种有效且可靠的工具。
