Species and sex identification of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), eastern lowland gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) and human

Abstract

Methods for the identification of the sex and species of individuals from a number of non-invasive samples taken from humans and gorillas were established. Amplification of a segment of amelogenin, which is an X-Y homologous gene, using tow pairs of primers from human amelogenin, revealed both Y- and X-specific bands. The possibility of sex identification was examined by typing the amelogenin gene using hair and fecal samples from captive western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in Japan and hair samples from wild eastern lowland gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, D.R.C., whose sexes were verified by direct observation. Species-specific bands of amelogenin in gorillas and humans were identified by PCR-RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphisms) analysis. The results indicated that these tests could be used as a tool to determine the sex of unidentified individuals of wild western and eastern lowland gorillas and to easily screen for contamination of human DNA from non-invasively acquired samples.