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Updated: Jun 27, 2025

A Noninvasive Hair Sampling Technique to Obtain High Quality DNA from Elusive Small Mammals
Published on: March 13, 2011
Capillary-Electrophoresis-Based Species Barcoding of Big Cats: CR-mtDNA-Length Polymorphism
Lenka Vankova1,2, Daniel Vanek1,2,3,4
1Institute for Environmental Sciences, Charles University, 128 00 Prague, Czech Republic.
Abstract:
This study aimed to provide an overview of the methodological approach used for the species determination of big cats. The molecular system described herein employs mitochondrial DNA control region (CR-mtDNA)-length polymorphism in combination with highly sensitive and precise capillary electrophoresis. We demonstrated that the described CR-mtDNA barcoding system can be utilized for species determination where the presence of biological material from big cats is expected or used as a confirmatory test alongside Sanger or massive parallel sequencing (MPS). We have also addressed the fact that species barcoding, when based on the analysis of mtDNA targets, can be biased by nuclear inserts of the mitochondrial genome (NUMTs). The CR-mtDNA barcoding system is suitable even for problematic and challenging samples, such as hair. CR-mtDNA-length polymorphisms can also distinguish hybrids from pure breeds.

