Zhou Yongheng, Zhang Qi, Gao Peng, Yang Shuhui, Xu Yanchun
College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China.
National Forestry and Grassland Administration Research Centre of Engineering Technology for Wildlife Conservation and Utilization, Harbin 150040, China.
Biology (Basel). 2025 Mar 28;14(4):353. doi: 10.3390/biology14040353.
Hair is a prominent physiological feature of many animals that can be easily and non-invasively sampled. However, most previous studies have focused on human hair, and animal hair has not been widely used as a DNA source in genetic and evolutionary studies. Analysing the DNA quality of animal hair is more challenging than that of human hair because it varies across different species and is influenced by different storage conditions. To address this gap in our knowledge, this study systematically evaluated the DNA quality of various animal hair samples. Our findings show that lightly medullated hairs, which are typical in carnivores, yield greater amounts of DNA and have better sequencing results than highly medullated hairs, which are typical in ungulate herbivores. Furthermore, the roots and middle hair were more productive than the upper hair parts. Tanning and storage time impair DNA yield and sequencing quality and increase nucleotide damage. Moreover, for certain historical specimens and field samples, genomic DNA was more successfully obtained from hair samples than from skin samples. This study provides data and theoretical support for improving the use of animal hair in genetic research.
毛发是许多动物显著的生理特征，易于非侵入性采样。然而，以往大多数研究都集中在人类毛发上，动物毛发在遗传和进化研究中尚未被广泛用作DNA来源。分析动物毛发的DNA质量比人类毛发更具挑战性，因为它在不同物种间存在差异，且受不同储存条件影响。为填补这一知识空白，本研究系统评估了各种动物毛发样本的DNA质量。我们的研究结果表明，食肉动物典型的轻度髓质化毛发比有蹄类食草动物典型的高度髓质化毛发产生的DNA量更多，测序结果更好。此外，毛发根部和中部比上部更易提取到DNA。鞣制和储存时间会损害DNA产量和测序质量，并增加核苷酸损伤。此外，对于某些历史标本和野外样本，从毛发样本中比从皮肤样本中更成功地获得了基因组DNA。本研究为改进动物毛发在遗传研究中的应用提供了数据和理论支持。
