Key personnel: Ms Bhagya Hathurusinghe, Mr Shyman Jayasundara

DNA Fingerprinting using the genetic analsyis of wild fauna (elephants) in Sri Lanka

The wild elephant population in Sri Lanka is fragmented and restricted to a few isolated small habitats in protected areas and its surrounding environs. The maintenance of a high degree of genetic diveristy within elephant  sub-populatiosn is vital for its long-term survival. This project aimed to develop a database of elephants in the Sri Lanka using the genetic analysis of dung method that is useful for management of elephants and development of a conservation plan. Our data provides the information such as individual and sex identification, population size estimation, genetic diversity and relatedness among indiciduals in a population, gene flow among populations, detetction of bottleneck event, phylogeography of elephants, providfing evidence of illegal wildlife poaching, inludeing being a tool for genetic management of a population and a long term monitoring of the managed population. This was achieved using the high end genetic sequencing methods like Illumina ddRAD seqencing methods. We were able to assemebled the first nuclear and mitochondrial genome assembly of the Sri Lankan elephant Elphas maximus maximus. The genetic diversity within Sri Lankan elephants assessed with identified SNPs suggests a geographical differentiation resulting in three significant clusters; north-eastern, mid-latitude, and southern regions. The markers that will be developed for SNP amplification can be utilized to distinguish individual Sri Lankan elephants. The similar approach can be used to fingerprint other wild species.

Publications: 

• Marasinghe, M. S. L. R. P., Nilanthi, R. M. R., Hathurusinghe, H. A. B. M., Sooriyabandara, M. G. C., Chandrasekara, C. H. W. M. R. B., Jayawardana, K. A. N. C., ... & Bandaranayake, P. C. G. (2021). Revisiting traditional SSR based methodologies available for elephant genetic studies. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1-13.
• M.G.Chandana Sooriyabandara1, J.M. Shyaman M. Jayasundara1, M.S.L. Ranjan P. Marasighe1, H.A.Bhagya M. Hathurusinghe1, et al., 'Genetic features of Sri Lankan elephant, Elephas maximus maximus Linnaeus revealed by high throughput sequencing of Mitogenome, Nuclear Genome and ddRADseq', PLOS ONE, accepted April 2023