Cryptic and endangered fauna, including many primate taxa, pose challenges for noninvasive collection of biomaterials. As a result, application of noninvasive genotyping to primates has been limited to the use of samples such as feces and hair for the extraction of PCR-amplifiable DNA. We present a method for noninvasive collection of saliva from habituated, free-ranging monkeys. The method utilizes a low-cost apparatus that controls for contamination and is usable with individual, free-ranging primates. Saliva samples were collected from 18 individuals in a population of Tibetan macaques (Macaca thibetana) in the Valley of Wild Monkeys in Huangshan, People's Republic of China. DNA was extracted from these samples and PCR-amplified for both mitochondrial and nuclear genes, Cytochrome B and MHC-DR Beta 1, respectively. These results indicate this is an effective technique for the noninvasive collection of saliva across age and sex class, and dominance rank in a free-ranging, terrestrial primate species. This device could have wide application for obtaining high-quality saliva samples from free-ranging primate populations for use in epidemiological studies, hormonal analyses of HPA axis function, pathogen screening, noninvasive genotyping, and behavioral genetics.

Microsatellites are playing an important role in paternity assignment of animals. Given the cost and effort, it would be optimal to develop a minimal microsatellite marker set for paternity testing. This study was the first to assess paternity in a captive colony of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) from the Chinese province of Anhui using 10 polymorphic microsatellites. Results indicated that if at least 6 loci were genotyped, the probability of paternity assignment success was nearly 100%. Our results provide a panel of 6 markers that is effective for assessing paternity of subspecies M. m. siamica of Anhui origin.

No abstract