Taberlet P, Fumagalli L
Laboratoire de Biologie des Populations d'Altitude, CNRS UMR 5553, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France,
Mol Ecol. 1996 Apr;5(2):301-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294x.1996.tb00318.x.
Owl pellets contain a good skeletal record of the small mammals consumed, and correspond to the undigested portions of prey which are regurgitated. These pellets are easy to find at the roosting site of owls. As it has been demonstrated that amplifiable DNA can be isolated from ancient bone remains, the possibility of using owl pellets as a source of DNA for small mammal genetics studies via the polymerase chain reaction has been investigated. The main uncertainties when isolating DNA from such a material are firstly the possibility that the extracted DNA would be too degraded during the digestion in the stomach of the owl, and secondly that extensive cross-contaminations could occur among the different prey consumed. The results obtained clearly demonstrate that cross-contamination does not occur, and that mitochondrial and nuclear DNA can be amplified using skulls of small mammals found in owl pellets as a source of DNA. The relative efficiency of two methods of DNA extraction is estimated and discussed. Thus, owl pellets represent a non-invasive sampling technique which provides a valuable source of DNA for studying population genetics of small mammals.
鸮的食丸包含了所捕食小型哺乳动物的良好骨骼记录，且对应着被反刍出来的猎物未消化部分。这些食丸在鸮的栖息处很容易找到。鉴于已证明可从古骨骼残骸中分离出可扩增的DNA，因此人们研究了通过聚合酶链反应将鸮的食丸用作小型哺乳动物遗传学研究的DNA来源的可能性。从这种材料中分离DNA时，主要的不确定因素首先是在鸮胃内消化过程中提取的DNA可能会过度降解，其次是所捕食的不同猎物之间可能会发生广泛的交叉污染。所获得的结果清楚地表明不会发生交叉污染，并且可以使用在鸮的食丸中发现的小型哺乳动物头骨作为DNA来源来扩增线粒体和核DNA。对两种DNA提取方法的相对效率进行了估计和讨论。因此，鸮的食丸代表了一种非侵入性采样技术，为研究小型哺乳动物的群体遗传学提供了宝贵的DNA来源。
