A Fast PCR Test for the Simultaneous Identification of Species and Gender in Horses, Donkeys, Mules and Hinnies

• Published in: Journal of equine veterinary science 2021-07, Vol.102, p.103458-103458, Article 103458
• Main Authors: Wang, Xisheng, Bou, Gerelchimeg, Zhang, Xinzhuang, Tao, Li, Shen, Yingchao, Na, Riga, Liu, Guiqin, Ren, Hong, Ren, Xiujuan, Song, Lianjie, Su, Shaofeng, Bai, Dongyi, Zhao, Yiping, Li, Bei, Dugarjaviin, Manglai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Donkey; Hinny; Horse; Identification; Mule
• ISSN: 0737-0806; 1542-7412
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jevs.2021.103458

•This PCR test to identify the species and gender in horses, donkeys, mules and hinnies only needs three pairs of primers and is just based on simple PCR.•This is the first time utilizing the mutation on equine autosome gene to identify horse, donkey and their hybrids DNA.•Our simple PCR method could be a cheap, fast and effective strategy to identify species and gender within horse, donkey, mule and hinny. Having considered that the current methods are costly and time-consuming, we designed an only 3 pairs primer-based PCR test to accurately identify the species and gender in horses, donkeys, mules and hinnies. Through a thorough sequence comparison between horse and donkey's highly similar genomes, and a vast amount of preliminary confirmation, we found that three fragments, CNGB3 gene on an autosome, displacement loop region on mitochondrial DNA and SRY genes on chromosome Y, within these equine DNA, are enough to enable us achieving our goal. The PCR test described here would be an economical, fast and accurate alternative for the most commonly-used methods, polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism, microsatellite assay, and sequencing.