Molecular identification of sex in the monomorphic breed of pigeons

Abstract

In many avian species, especially in monomorphic species and breeds, sex identification creates a serious problem, as they do not show any phenotypic differences. One of such breeds is the Wroclaw Meat Pigeon. In this study, molecular identification of sex with P2 and P8 primers used for the CHD1 (chromo-helicase-DNA-binding-protein) gene amplification was performed. Peripheral blood samples were analyzed from 46 birds, and their DNA was isolated with the phenol-chloroform method. The fragments (370 bp CHD1-Z; 350 bp CHD1-W) obtained from the PCR were cut with the BsuRI. Only the sequence in the Z chromosome was cut into fragments of 305 and 65 bp by the restriction enzyme. The difference between CHD1-Z and CHD1-W was visualized in 3% agarose gel. A single band was identified as male, whereas two bands (plus 1 invisible) were identified as female. Consequently, 23 specimens in each sex were identified.