Abstract

Forensic biological identifications of mammal species through DNA barcodes

Author(s): Magdy M.Youssef, Yehia A.Hussein, Abd Rahman Heraba, Saad S.Al-Shokair

ABSTRACT One of the grand challenges of modern biology is to develop accurate and reliable technologies for a rapid screening of DNA variations. This topic of research is of prime importance for the detection and identification of species in numerous fields of investigation. Variety of DNA based approaches have been developed for the identification of individuals in a myriad of taxonomic groups. In the present work, We extracted genomic DNA from whole blood samples obtained from variant eukaryotic species and compared the results of the product obtained in terms of quantity (concentration of DNA extracted and DNA obtained per ml of blood used) and quality (260/280 ratio of the obtained yield. A series of random oligonucleotide primers were designed and used it with the genome DNA of individualsÂ’ species of Human, Horse, Camel, Rabbit, Cow, Chicken, Sheep and goats to identify and evaluate these species by utilizing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based assays. TheDNAwas amplified and themigration pattern of the amplified specific short and long amplified DNAelementswas quantified by the aid of agarose gel electrophoresis. The species specificity of the PCR amplicons was demonstrated by the ability of the assays to accurately detect and identify of species specific DNAfrommixed sources. The PCRassay reported here will help facilitate the sensitive detection of common domestic animal and bird species DNA from complex biomaterials. The dendogram of the studied individualsÂ’ species was demonstrated. A critical evaluation of all methods is presented focusing on their discriminatory power, reproducibility and user friendliness. The current trend was used to develop small scale devices with a high throughput capacity.