Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31827140›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2019

Distinguishing extant elephants ivory from mammoth ivory using a short sequence of cytochrome b gene.

Jacob Njaramba Ngatia, Tian Ming Lan, Yue Ma, Thi Dao Dinh, Zhen Wang, Thomas D Dahmer, Yan Chun Xu

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
1.1field-weighted citation impact, top 22% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Jacob Njaramba NgatiaCollege of Wildlife and Protected Areas, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China.
Tian Ming LanBGI - Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518083, China.
Yue MaCollege of Wildlife and Protected Areas, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China.
Thi Dao DinhCollege of Wildlife and Protected Areas, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China.
Zhen WangCollege of Wildlife and Protected Areas, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China.
Thomas D DahmerEcosystems Ltd, No. 40 Shek Pai Wan Road, Aberdeen, Hong Kong, China.
Yan Chun XuCollege of Wildlife and Protected Areas, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040, China. xu_daniel@163.com.
Northeast Forestry University · CNState Forestry and Grassland Administration · CNUniversity of Copenhagen · DK

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Trade in ivory from extant elephant species namely Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) and African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) is regulated internationally, while the trade in ivory from extinct species of Elephantidae, including woolly mammoth, is unregulated. This distinction creates opportunity for laundering and trading elephant ivory as mammoth ivory. The existing morphological and molecular genetics methods do not reliably distinguish the source of ivory items that lack clear identification characteristics or for which the quality of extracted DNA cannot support amplification of large gene fragments. We present a PCR-sequencing method based on 116 bp target sequence of the cytochrome b gene to specifically amplify elephantid DNA while simultaneously excluding non-elephantid species and ivory substitutes, and while avoiding contamination by human DNA. The partial Cytochrome b gene sequence enabled accurate association of ivory samples with their species of origin for all three extant elephants and from mammoth. The detection limit of the PCR system was as low as 10 copy numbers of target DNA. The amplification and sequencing success reached 96.7% for woolly mammoth ivory and 100% for African savanna elephant and African forest elephant ivory. This is the first validated method for distinguishing elephant from mammoth ivory and it provides forensic support for investigation of ivory laundering cases.

Indexed as

Conservation of Natural ResourcesAnimalsCrimeCytochromes bDNA Barcoding, TaxonomicElephantsMammothsSensitivity and SpecificityCytochromes b

Identifiers

PMID31827140
PMCPMC6906310
OpenAlexW2996054451

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.