Identification of sika deer and red deer using partial cytochrome b and 12s ribosomal RNA genes

Abstract

A study was conducted on the identifications of the degraded samples of sika deer (Cervus nippon) and red deer (Cervus elaphus) by phylogenetic and nucleotide distance analysis of partial Cytb and 12s rRNA genes sequences. 402 bp Cytb genes were achieved by PCR-sequencing using DNA extracted from 8 case samples, and contrasted with 27 sequences of Cytb gene downloaded from GenBank database. The values of three nucleotide distance between three suspected samples and sika deer were identical (0.26±0.006), which was smaller than the smallest nucleotide distance between eastern red deer and sika deer (0.036). Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis of sika deer and red deer indicated that the evidences located within the same cluster as sika deer. The evidences were sika deer materials. As the same way, other three suspected samples were derived from red deer. The results were further confirmed by phylogenetic and nucleotide distance analysis of 387 bp 12s rRNA gene. The method was powerful and less time-consuming and helpful to reduce the related cases with wildlife.

Keywords

Sika deer (Cervus nippon) / Red deer (Cervus elaphus) / Cytochrome b gene (Cytb) / 12s ribosomal RNA gene (12s rRNA)

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