A multiplex PCR assay for molecular sexing of the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber)

K Katsushima; C Nishida; S Yosida; M Kato; K Okanoya; Y Matsuda

doi:10.1111/j.1755-0998.2009.02742.x

A multiplex PCR assay for molecular sexing of the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber)

Mol Ecol Resour. 2010 Jan;10(1):222-4. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-0998.2009.02742.x. Epub 2009 Jun 25.

Authors

K Katsushima¹, C Nishida, S Yosida, M Kato, K Okanoya, Y Matsuda

Affiliation

¹ Laboratory of Animal Cytogenetics, Biosystems Science Course, Graduate School of Life Science, Hokkaido University, North 10 West 8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan Laboratory for Biolinguistics, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako-shi, Saitama 351-0198, Japan Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan.

PMID: 21565015
DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-0998.2009.02742.x

Abstract

For molecular sexing of the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), we designed a PCR primer set to amplify part of the Y-linked DBY gene. When this primer set was applied to the samples of known sex with the 16S rRNA gene (16S rDNA) primers as control, PCR products were successfully obtained as two DNA bands in males, a male-specific 163 bp DBY band and a 446 bp band of 16S rDNA shared with females, whereas females showed only the common band. This result shows that this multiplex PCR assay is useful for sex identification of H. glaber.