Multilocus Genotyping of Asian Elephant Ivory: A Case Study in Suspected Wildlife Crime

Abstract

As a part of wildlife crime investigation, two pieces of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) ivory were collected by Uttarakhand forest department at different time interval to identify whether they belonged to same individual. The samples were analyzed using multilocus genotype based genetic analysis. Twelve fluorescent labeled microsatellite loci were used to analyze the nuclear DNA that were developed and validated for Asian elephants. Based on DNA typing, both the samples showed same alleles at every tested locus indicating that both the ivory pieces originated from single individual. The study highlights successful extraction and analysis of nuclear DNA employing microsatellite markers from ivory collected from Asian elephant.