Sex determination in gibbons of genus <i>Nomascus</i> using non-invasive method

Bolechová, Petra; Ječmínková, Kateřina; Hradec, Michal; Kott, Tomáš; Doležalová, Jana

doi:10.2754/avb201685040363

Acta Veterinaria > Archive > 2016, Vol. 85 > Issue 4 > Sex determination in gibbons of genus…

Acta Vet. Brno 2016, 85: 363-366

https://doi.org/10.2754/avb201685040363

Sex determination in gibbons of genus Nomascus using non-invasive method

Petra Bolechová^1,2, Kateřina Ječmínková^1,3, Michal Hradec¹, Tomáš Kott³, Jana Doležalová⁴

¹Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Department of Animal Science and Ethology, Prague, Czech Republic
²Zoo Liberec, Czech Republic
³Institute of Animal Science, Department of Molecular Genetics, Prague, Czech Republic
⁴University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Physiology, Brno, Czech Republic

Received June 28, 2016
Accepted October 12, 2016

Gibbons of the genus Nomascus have a strong sexual dimorphism and dichromatism. As they mature, both sexes develop sex-specific pelage colour. In combination with physical similarities in the genitalia with both sexes, there are problems with determining the sex of young individuals compared to other genus of gibbons. This is a pilot study applying a multiplex polymerase chain reactions based on a non-invasive method for sex determination of gibbons. The study was conducted on 22 faecal samples from gibbons of the genus Nomascus. The animals were monitored by staff so that the samples were identified correctly and each sample was collected immediately after the defecation. Results confirmed the sex in all adult and juvenile animals with known sex; and 2 females and 5 males in juveniles were determined with unknown sex. The results of direct examination completely corresponded with the PCR results. The PCR reaction with template DNA isolated from faecal material required BSA usage, however, we observed the occurrence of nonspecific fragments. This did not affect the reliability of our results and we confirmed the usability of this method for this genus.