The isolation of molecular genetic markers for the identification of sex

Abstract

It is difficult to identify sex in many species of eukaryotic organism. This can considerably impede research into their biology. Fortunately, one sex often possesses a unique chromosome termed Y or W. When DNA markers are available for these chromosomes, then sex identification becomes straightforward. We describe a technique that facilitates the isolation of such markers. The procedure makes use of low-stringency PCR to screen randomly selected primers for their ability to amplify sex-specific loci.