Gorilla mtDNA - Sequences Unravelled and Secrets Revealed

Abstract

First paragraph: Non-invasive genetics, the analysis of DNA variability using samples such as hair or fresh faeces collected in the field, has made enormous progress since the days of its infancy in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Higuchi et al. 1988; Constable et al. 1995). At this time, such genetic analyses held great promise for ecologists, with the capacity to explain all the mysteries of population structure and social organisation, degrees of relatedness and gene flow of species not amenable to direct study (Avise 1994). We were no less enthusiastic in our predictions of its power and our prowess. So much so that we convinced a pool of gorilla researchers and conservation organisations to help us collect material for the first rangewide study of genetic variability in the gorilla.