Fast and Simple Molecular Test for Sex Determination of the Monomorphic Individuals.

Sex determination based just on morphological traits such as plumage dichromatism, sexual size dimorphism, behavior, or vocalizations is really challenging because of the sexual monomorphism present in more than half of avian species. Currently, a lot of them can be tested through DNA-based procedures, but they do not fit all the avian species, such as . The aim of this study was to design a new molecular method suitable for routine sex determination for that species that is fast, simple, and cost- and time- effective. DNA was isolated from dry blood stain and/or chest feather samples of species. We used two sets of sex-specific primers (ZF/ZR and WF/WR) to amplify the expected fragments localized on the highly conserved gene to distinguish between sexes due to the W-specific DNA sequence present only in females. We confirmed the accuracy and consistency of the PCR-based method based on length differences to distinguish between the sexes of , which amplified two fragments in females and one fragment in males.