Using a mathematical model to evaluate microsatellite genotyping from low-quality DNA
Noninvasive sampling has been used in studies of endangered animals. It has the advantage of obtaining samples without affecting the target animals. However, the quality of DNA obtained by such methods is often poor and this can affect the reliability of the results. Therefore, how to obtain reliable results from samples obtained noninvasively is of widespread interest. Professor LI Baoguo and Guo Songtao at the Key Laboratory of Resource Biology and Biotechnology in Western China, Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Northwest University, set out to tackle this problem. Their work, entitled "Evaluating the reliability of microsatellite genotyping from low-quality DNA templates with a polynomial distribution model", was published in the Chinese Science Bulletin.2011, Vol 56 (24).