PROCESS FOR ANIMAL SPECIES IDENTIFICATION IN SAMPLES WITH GENETIC MATERIAL BASED ON MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SIZE VARIATION

摘要

The present invention refers to a process for animal species identification in biological samples with genetic material of animal origin, based on variations in the size of mitochondrial 12s and 16s ribosomal RNA gene sequences. The method of this invention comprises a panel of oligonucleotide PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) primers, labelled with fluorescent dyes, for multiplex PCR amplification of seven mitochondrial DNA regions with insertion/deletion polymorphisms, allowing fragment size detection and analysis by automated capillary electrophoresis or similar techniques. The species identification is achieved by comparing the target sample profile (DNA fragment sizes) with pre-established standard species-specific fragment sizes. With the present invention is possible to detect and identify animal species in highly degraded biological samples due to the analysis of mitochondrial DNA, present in many copies per cell. This invention is advantageous when high throughput sample analyses are needed such as for large-scale species identification procedures in forensics, food quality control, ancient DNA, paleogenetics and ecology studies. Another aspect of the present invention relates to a kit containing reagents needed to practice the above-referred method.