%0 Journal Article
%T An evaluation of the PCR-RFLP technique to aid molecular-based monitoring of felids and canids in India
%A Shomita Mukherjee
%A Ashalakshmi CN
%A Chandrima Home
%A Uma Ramakrishnan
%J BMC Research Notes
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1756-0500-3-159
%X Using existing sequences of felids and canids from GenBank, we designed primers from the 16S rRNA region of the mitochondrial genome and tested these on ten species of felids and five canids. We selected restriction enzymes that would cut the selected region differentially for various species within each family. We produced a restriction digestion profile for the potential differentiation of species based on fragment patterns. To test our technique, we used felid PCR primers on scats collected from various habitats in India, representing varied environmental conditions. Amplification success with field collected scats was 52%, while 86% of the products used for restriction digestion could be accurately assigned to species. We verified this through sequencing. A comparison of costs across the various techniques currently used for scat assignment showed that this technique was the most practical and cost effective.The species-specific key developed in this paper provides a means for detailed investigations in the future that focus on elusive carnivores in India and this approach provides a model for other studies in areas of Asia where many small carnivores co-occur.India is inhabited by 58 of the 250 globally distributed species of carnivore. This is especially striking in the Family Felidae where 15 of the 36 species inhabit India, making it the richest in worldwide cat diversity [1]. Although many studies have been initiated on larger carnivores such as the lion [2], tiger, leopard and wild dog [3-5], snow leopard [6,7] and wolf [8], knowledge about the distribution, ecology and conservation status of many of the smaller carnivores remains poor. This is largely due to their rare, elusive and nocturnal habits, coupled with cumbersome bureaucratic formalities involved in invasive studies on rare species. As a result, few detailed ecological studies exist on small-carnivores in India [9,10].Traditional non-invasive field studies, based on indirect evidence from tracks
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1756-0500/3/159