Department of Wildlife Conservation, 811/A, Jayanthipura Road, Battaramulla, 10120, Sri Lanka.
Agricultural Biotechnology Centre, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, 20400, Sri Lanka.
Sci Rep. 2021 Apr 22;11(1):8718. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-88034-9.
Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) plays a significant role in natural ecosystems and it is considered as an endangered animal. Molecular genetics studies on elephants' dates back to 1990s. Microsatellite markers have been the preferred choice and have played a major role in ecological, evolutionary and conservation research on elephants over the past 20 years. However, technical constraints especially related to the specificity of traditionally developed microsatellite markers have brought to question their application, specifically when degraded samples are utilized for analysis. Therefore, we analyzed the specificity of 24 sets of microsatellite markers frequently used for elephant molecular work. Comparative wet lab analysis was done with blood and dung DNA in parallel with in silico work. Our data suggest cross-amplification of unspecific products when field-collected dung samples are utilized in assays. The necessity of Asian elephant specific set of microsatellites and or better molecular techniques are highlighted.
亚洲象（Elephas maximus）在自然生态系统中扮演着重要的角色，它被认为是濒危动物。大象的分子遗传学研究可以追溯到 20 世纪 90 年代。微卫星标记一直是首选，并且在过去 20 年中在大象的生态、进化和保护研究中发挥了重要作用。然而，技术限制，特别是与传统开发的微卫星标记的特异性相关的限制，使得它们的应用受到质疑，特别是在利用降解样本进行分析时。因此，我们分析了 24 组常用于大象分子工作的微卫星标记的特异性。我们通过血液和粪便 DNA 进行了比较湿实验室分析，并与计算机模拟工作相结合。我们的数据表明，当在野外收集的粪便样本用于检测时，会出现非特异性产物的交叉扩增。因此，需要开发一套专门针对亚洲象的微卫星标记或更好的分子技术。
