Reconstruction of kinship by fecal DNA analysis of orangutans

Genetic analysis is a useful tool for assigning biological relationships. Thus, it will improve genetic management of wild animal populations and breeding colonies. Kinship analysis will give new insights into the behavior, sociobiology and genetic management of orangutans. In this study, chromosomal DNA from orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus ssp.) was extracted from excrements. Feces samples were screened for up to nine microsatellite markers from related zoo populations of orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus ssp.) kept at the Zoological Garden Berlin and the Zoological Garden Heidelberg, Germany. Family structures are documented in the "International Studybook of the Orangutan" (Perkins 1995) and the "Europäisches Erhaltungszucht Programm 1998" (Becker 1998). To examine whether human short tandem repeat loci (STR) are suitable for the reconstruction of kinship in orangutans, nine STRs, commonly used in forensic studies and the amelogenin system, were amplified in a multiplex-PCR approach (AmpFlSTR Profiler Plus). We were able to show that five of the nine human autosomal STRs in question amplified successfully in orangutans. Thus, we could reconstruct kinship structures of the Berlin and Heidelberg populations.