The forensic application of DNA barcoding for identification of illegally traded African pangolin scales

The escalating growth in illegal wildlife trade (IWT) and anthropogenic habitat changes threaten the survival of pangolin species globally. All eight extant species have experienced drastic population size reductions globally with high extinction risk in Asia. Consequently, forensic services have become critical for law enforcement of IWT, with a need for standardised and validated genetic identification methods. The seizure of three tonnes of pangolin scales, originating from Africa, by the Hong Kong Customs Authority provided an opportunity for the forensic application of DNA barcoding for identification. Three mitochondrial DNA gene regions (COI, Cyt b and D-loop) were amplified for a subset of the confiscation, and compared to taxonomically verified reference sequences. African pangolin samples were recovered as monophyletic with high interspecific uncorrected p-distance estimates (0.048-0.188) among genes. Phylogenetic analyses accurately identified three out of four African species (Phataginus tricuspis, P. tetradactyla and Smutsia gigantea) originating from several sources from West and Central Africa and only one of the four Asian species (M. javanica) from Southeast Asia among scales. Although the assignment of the unknown scales to specific species was reliable, additional genetic tools and representative reference material is required in order to determine geographic origins of pangolin confiscations.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author