A Non-Invasive Method of Molecular Authentication of ‘Shed Feathers' for the Forensically Informative Nucleotide Sequences (FINS) Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31632/ijsblc.2026.v02i04.002Keywords:
16s rRNA, COI, Cytochrome B, FINS, Phylogenetic Tree, Wildlife ForensicsAbstract
Species identification through visual examination and feather morphometrics is a challenging task for law enforcement agencies in enforcing the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA). In the present study, DNA was extracted by a non-invasive method, i.e., from scattered shed feathers of Antigone antigone antigone, the Indian Sarus Crane, in the paddy fields collected during the field survey. Three mitochondrial genes (COI, Cytochrome b and 16s rRNA) were amplified using universal primers for species identification. The homologous sequences were retrieved using NCBI-GenBank for each generated sequence of the three genes. Neighbour-Joining and Maximum Parsimony trees in FINS analysis identified the species from the individual feather with strong bootstrap support. The study highlighted the importance of shed feathers in identifying the species and their applicability in wildlife forensic cases using the FINS approach.
References
Bartlett, S. E., & Davidson, W. S. (1992). FINS (forensically informative nucleotide sequencing): A procedure for identifying the animal origin of biological specimens. Biotechniques, 12(3), 408-411. https://europepmc.org/article/med/1571152
Chapela, M. J., Sotelo, C. G., Calo‐Mata, P., Pérez‐Martín, R. I., Rehbein, H., Hold, G. L., ... & Santos, A. T. (2002). Identification of cephalopod species (Ommastrephidae and Loliginidae) in seafood products by forensically informative nucleotide sequencing (FINS). Journal of Food science, 67(5), 1672-1676. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2621.2002.tb08703.x
Dubey, V., & Prakash, S. (2025). Cytochrome B Variation among the Subspecies of Antigone antigone. International Journal of Advancement in Life Sciences Research, 8(1), 131–139. https://doi.org/10.31632/ijalsr.2025.v08i01.012
Green, M. R., & Sambrook, J. (2012). Molecular cloning. A Laboratory Manual 4th, 448. https://rnajournal.cshlp.org/content/18/7/local/advertising.pdf
Guha, S., & Kashyap, V. K. (2006). Molecular identification of lizard by RAPD & FINS of mitochondrial 16s rRNA gene. Legal Medicine, 8(1), 5-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.legalmed.2005.07.001
Hajibabaei, M., Smith, M. A., Janzen, D. H., Rodriguez, J. J., Whitfield, J. B., & Hebert, P. D. (2006). A minimalist barcode can identify a specimen whose DNA is degraded. Molecular Ecology Notes, 6(4), 959-964. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-8286.2006.01470.x
Hebert, P. D., & Gregory, T. R. (2005). The promise of DNA barcoding for taxonomy. Systematic Biology, 54(5), 852-859. https://doi.org/10.1080/10635150500354886
Kumar, S., Stecher, G., Li, M., Knyaz, C., & Tamura, K. (2018). MEGA X: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis across computing platforms. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 35(6), 1547-1549. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msy096
Li, M., Zhang, K. Y. B., But, P. P. H., & Shaw, P. C. (2011). Forensically informative nucleotide sequencing (FINS) for the authentication of Chinese medicinal materials. Chinese Medicine,6, 42. https://doi.org/10.1186/1749-8546-6-42
Mitchell, P., Stade, K., Oβwald, M., & Brimacombe, R. (1993). Site-directed cross-linking studies on the E. coli tRNA ribosome complex: determination of sites labelled with an aromatic azide attached to the variable loop or aminoacyl group of tRNA. Nucleic Acids Research, 21(4), 887-896. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/21.4.887
Rajpoot, A., Kumar, V. P., Bahuguna, A., & Kumar, D. (2017). Forensically informative nucleotide sequencing (FINS) for the first time authentication of Indian Varanus species: implication in wildlife forensics and conservation. Mitochondrial DNA Part A, 28(6), 892-900. https://doi.org/10.1080/24701394.2016.1202943
Sahajpal, V., & Goyal, S. P. (2010). Identification of a forensic case using microscopy and forensically informative nucleotide sequencing (FINS): A case study of small Indian civet (Viverricula indica). Science & Justice, 50(2), 94-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2009.07.002
Sanger, F., Nicklen, S., & Coulson, A. R. (1977). DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 74(12), 5463-5467. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463
Singh, G., Srinivas, Y., Kumar, G. C., Singh, A., Sharma, C. P., & Gupta, S. K. (2020). Identification of selected wild felids using hair morphology and forensically informative nucleotide sequencing (FINS): Wildlife forensics prospective. Legal Medicine, 44, 101692. https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.legalmed.2020.101692
Thakur, M., Singh, S. K., Shukla, M., Sharma, L. K., & Mohan, N. (2013). Identification of galliformes through forensically informative nucleotide sequencing (FINS) and its implication in wildlife forensics. Journal of Forensic Research. S3. https://doi.org/10.4172/2157-7145.S3-001
Verma, S. K., & Singh, L. (2003). Novel universal primers establish identity of an enormous number of animal species for forensic application. Molecular Ecology Notes, 3(1), 28-31. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1471-8286.2003.00340.x
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 International Journal of Sustainable Biome and Life Care
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
