Recovery of DNA from Footprints in the Snow

Authors

  • Love Dalén Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento de Humanos, 28029, Madrid
  • Anders Götherström Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento de Humanos, 28029, Madrid
  • Tomas Meijer Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, S-10691, Stockholm
  • Beth Shapiro Department of Zoology, Oxford University, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v121i3.482

Keywords:

Arctic Fox, Alopex lagopus, Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes, trace DNA, conservation biology, forensics

Abstract

The recovery of trace amounts of DNA has been demonstrated to be a reliable tool in conservation genetics and has become a key component of modern forensic casework. To date, genetic data have been successfully recovered from a variety of sources, including biological fluids, faeces, clothing, and even directly from fingerprints. However, to our knowledge and despite their widespread occurrence and clear potential as a source of DNA, genetic information has not previously been recovered directly from footprints. Here, we extract and amplify mitochondrial DNA from a snow footprint, <48-hours old, made by a Swedish Arctic Fox (Alopex lagopus). Our results demonstrate that it is possible to recover sufficient DNA from recent footprints to accurately type the source of the print, with implications for conservation biology and forensic science.

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 121 No. 3 (2007)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright for Canadian Field-Naturalist content is held by the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club, except for content published by employees of federal government departments, in which case the copyright is held by the Crown. In-copyright content available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library is available for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence. For usage of content at the BHL for purposes other than those allowed under this licence, contact us.

 

To request use of copyright material,  please contact our editor, Dr. Dwayne Lepitzki: editor -at- canadianfieldnaturalist -dot- ca