Sex Determination in Giant Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) using Hair Roots by Polymerase Chain Reaction Amplification.

Abstract

The present study was carried out to examine whether the sex of giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), which are not easy to sex from their external genitalia, could be identified using hair root by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. DNA was extracted from the hair root(s) and amplified by PCR with a pair of primer designed from human sex-determining region Y (SRY) gene. When PCR amplification was applied to the DNA samples extracted from 5 hair roots of each 5 individual of known sex, a signal was only detected in the male, but no signal was detected in the female. In addition, a clear male-specific signal could be detected even when DNA was extracted from a single hair root of the male. Moreover, the nucleotide sequence of this segment in giant anteater exhibited the high similarity with human SRY gene. When PCR amplification was applied to the DNA samples extracted from hair roots of each 10 individual of unknown sex, a male specific signal was detected in 8 individuals including 2 pairs kept in 2 places, but no signal was detected in 2 individuals, suggesting that some institutions had kept 2 giant anteaters as the same sex, not as a couple. The results of this study indicate that PCR amplification with SRY primer pair using DNA from hair root made possible the sensitive, reliable and rapid molecular identification of the sex in giant anteater.