USA

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: arctic; genotyping; microsatellites; noninvasive; Arctic; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.535.2933; http://people.cst.cmich.edu/swans1bj/Swanson_etal_MolEco_2006.pdf

Obtaining a sufficient number of DNA samples from ice-breeding marine phocids, in a noninvasive manner, has proven difficult and has limited the ability to use molecular genetics on these species. We evaluate the ability to genotype ringed seals using a novel source of DNA, skin cells shed by the seal as it moults on sea ice. We found that shed skin samples yielded a lower quantity and purity of DNA compared to tissue samples. Never-theless, the shed skin cells were a viable source of DNA for microsatellite analysis; we found no significant difference in allelic diversity or heterozygosities between tissue sam-ples and shed skin cells. This source of DNA should allow the rapid collection of a large number of noninvasively collected DNA samples in ice-breeding phocids.