Molecular Sexing of South and South-east Asian Mammals

Importance: Joshi et al. 2019 discusses utility and applicability of universal molecular sexing of various genera of South and Southeast Asian mammals. Molecular sexing can potentially decipher population sex ratios with respect to maintaining genetic diversity, manage inbreeding depression and prevent the demographic consequences of sex-biased poaching. In this study, the authors selected and tested and optimized three sets of universal primers with different types (tissue, hair and skin) of biological samples from 20 mammalian species. With an increasing number of field studies using non-invasively collected samples, this proposed low-cost gel- based method of molecular sexing may be applied in various biological aspects of the study species, their conservation and forensics. They also suggest at least two sets of primers being used for any such study to avoid ambiguity.

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