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DNA “fingerprints” and paternity ascertainment in chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes )
Author(s) -
Ely John,
Ferrell Robert E.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
zoo biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.5
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1098-2361
pISSN - 0733-3188
DOI - 10.1002/zoo.1430090203
Subject(s) - biology , dna profiling , variable number tandem repeat , genetics , troglodytes , microsatellite , tandem repeat , evolutionary biology , dna sequencing , minisatellite , str analysis , dna , allele , zoology , genome , gene
Highly variable regions of DNA are found in a wide diversity of organisms and are typically composed of alleles consisting of a variable number of tandem repeats (VNTRs) of a short core sequence. DNA fingerprinting probes are VNTR probes that simultaneously detect a large number of similar VNTRs in the target DNA. The highly polymorphic pattern observed in a DNA fingerprint allows resolution of questions concerning individual identification. M13 phage was used to fingerprint captive chimpanzees for paternity ascertainment. Although the probability of band sharing among captive chimps appears to be higher than among some other reported captive and feral animal populations, the probe is highly useful and can be expected to become more widely used in the genetic management of captive populations.