Deer gender determination by polymerase chain reaction: Validation study and application to tissues, bloodstains, and hair forensic samples from California

We determined the gender of deer samples using polymerase chain reaction primers to the sry gene located on the Y chromosome of mammalian males. Primers to the ZFX/ZFY genes were added to the same amplification reaction as a control against amplification failure. The sry fragment amplified from deer DNA was partially sequenced. Sequence alignment with published bp sequences from other mammals and get migration indicate the fragment is 174 bp long. In a blind test, tissue samples from 100 individual deer and elk of known sex were correctly gender-typed. DNA from deer bloodstains and hair samples was successfully amplified and typed. Under known limiting DNA conditions, the duplex reaction results were reliable and no false positive females were observed. DNA detection on gels stained with SYBR green was more sensitive than with ethidium bromide. DNA from wildlife forensic samples confiscated between 1990 and 1997 was extracted with Chelex 100 and tested. Twenty-four out of 31 different evidence items tested were successfully gender-typed: 15 out of 21 bloodstains, 5 out of 6 hairs, and 4 out of 4 tissue samples.