AMELX and AMELY Structure and Application for Sex Determination of Iranian Maral deer (Cervus elaphus maral)

In order to have a good perspective of wild animals, it is necessary to determine their population and genetic structure. It provides an opportunity to decide on better conservation managements. In the wilderness, due to the escapable nature and sometimes not having the distinguishable bisexual appearance, sex identification could be difficult by observing animals. The X- and Y- chromosome linked amelogenin (AMELX and AMELY) due to its independent and different evolution on both chromosomes could play an important role in sex determining of wild animals. To determine the sex ratio and also the genetic structure of AMELX and AMELY in Maral deer (Cervus elaphus maral), 37 samples were collected from populations were located in north parts of Iran. Results showed that in female deer, the amelogenin gene had one banding patterns (231 bp, for X chromosome) and the male deer had two banding pattern (231 bp and 180 bp for X and Y chromosomes, respectively). The AMELY of Maral had in/del mutation (54 bp). The genetic distance (D) of AMELX from Maral deer and Red deer was 0.12 ± 0.02, it was calculated zero for AMELY. The phylogenetic analysis of AMELX and AMELY of different deer species, showed no distance for AMELY and the D was 0.048 ± 0.009 for AMELX. It is recommended that sex determination of wild animals, especially mammalian populations using amelogenin gene would be a useful and simple method which could provide further information for genetic conservation strategies.