Sex determination on samples of bovine meat by polymerase chain reaction

A simple method for determining sex on samples of bovine meat is based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of bovine Y chromosome-specific sequences using total DNA from meat as template. Under optimized PCR conditions, an amplified DNA fragment, with size between 298 bp and 344 bp markers, was detected only in the presence of male meat DNA as template. The procedure, including DNA extraction, PCR amplification and electrophoretic analysis, required about 5 hr and could be carried out starting from fresh or frozen beef. Unambiguous results were obtained in the presence of amounts of template DNA ranging from 0.01 to 100 ng. This procedure has potential application in regulatory analysis to specifically differentiate sex origination of meat samples