National Institute of Subtropical Agriculture Rural Development Administration 1696 Odueng-dong, Jeju 690–150, Korea.
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The sex chromosome-encoding zinc finger protein genes (ZFX and ZFY) were analyzed and tested for molecular sexing using the amplification patterns of intron 7 flanking region of ZFX-ZFY in the Korean wild boar (Sus scrofa coreanus). The amplified products from males showed two distinct bands: one was common to all DNA samples of wild boars, indicating that this band was amplified from ZFX on the X chromosome, while another was specific to just males, indicating that it might be from ZFY on the Y chromosome. A transposable element, short interspersed nuclear element (SINE)-like sequence was found on the intron 7 of ZFY but not on that of ZFX and was very similar to commonly found SINE1A_SS. We suggest that this PCR strategy for determining the sex by comparing the amplification patterns of the sexual dimorphic ZFX-ZFY genes on the X and Y chromosomes is a convenient and precise method for discriminating the sex in wild boars.
SINE-like sequence, sexual dimorphism, wild boar, ZFY
