‘ForCyt’ DNA database of wildlife species

N Ahlers, J. Creecy, G Frankham, R. N. Johnson, A Kotze, A Linacre, R. McEwing, M Mwale, J. J. Rovie-Ryan, F. Witam, L M I Webster

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

26 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Wildlife crime continues unabated contributing to the extinction or near extinction of many plant and animal species. Species identification is a key tool in the enforcement of national legislation. If no morphology exists, comparison of DNA sequences generated from a mitochondrial gene are compared to those on a reference database, commonly GenBank. Sequences up-loaded to GenBank are unregulated and can lead to uncertainty with the adequacy of this DNA sequence repository for identification in a forensic context. We propose the establishment of ForCyt as a fully-regulated database of species that are commonly encountered in forensic investigations. The establishment of ForCyt will allow confidence in future species identification; something that is an absolute requirement to ensure high quality forensic science.

Original languageEnglish
Pagese466-e468
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2017
Event27th International Society for Forensic Genetics - Seoul, Korea, Republic of
Duration: 28 Aug 20171 Sept 2017

Conference

Conference27th International Society for Forensic Genetics
Country/TerritoryKorea, Republic of
CitySeoul
Period28/08/171/09/17

Keywords

  • Illegal wildlife trade
  • Mitochondrial DNA
  • Quality control
  • Species identification
  • Standardised reference database
  • Wildlife crime
  • Wildlife forensics

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