Molecular Forensics of an Enigmatic Egg: Species Identification Using Mitochondrial DNA Barcoding

Accurate identification of species of eggs is significance to ecology, conservation and enforcement of wildlife laws but sometimes can be difficult when morphological characters are not available or are unclear. A case-study is given on a DNA-based forensic pipeline that was used to determine an unknown egg that had been found and collected from a field site. Sanger sequencing and database searches (GenBank/ NCBI BLAST) using standard mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunits I (COI) barcoding protocols were used to assign species to the egg. This study present sampling, DNA isolation, COI-PCR amplification for the taxonomic assignment. Also addressed the technical difficulties (contamination, degraded DNA, reference database gap), interpretative thresholds of assigning a species, and conservation and enforcement implication. The article combines the existing procedures and published analyses of egg/ early -stage life molecular identification and offers a useful template to be used in forensic and ecological approaches.