Molecular sex identification of red panda (Ailurus fulgens) suitable for noninvasive genetic studies

Molecular sexing of wild animals is feasible with differential amplification of X- and Y-homologous regions of various genes. We present a simple and robust technique for sex identification of red panda suitable for noninvasive studies based on sex-specific fragment size polymorphism in amelogenin (AMEL) gene. Sequence analysis of AMELX and AMELY revealed an 18-bp deletion in Y fragment which was used to differentially amplify 217 bp of X and 199 bp of Y fragments. The designed primer pair is very sensitive and exhibits polymerase chain reaction (PCR) success rates of 89 and 78 % at 0.1 and 0.01 ng template DNA concentrations, respectively. Further, we amplified poor quality faecal DNA with 94 % success rate and average dropout rate of 15.6 %. In silico analysis shows that these primers can also be used to identify sex of a sympatric species, giant panda.