DNA-FINGERPRINTING IN THE ENDANGERED PARROT - ARATINGA GUAROUBA AND OTHER ARATINGA SPECIES

The destruction of natural habitats and illegal trading are endangerin g many species of Brazilian parrots. Survival of some species may depe nd on breeding programmes in captivity. It is therefore important to b e able to confirm the identity and parentage of the birds, and to main tain the genetic variability of captive populations. We studied here D NA fingerprints of the endangered Aratinga guarouba and five other spe cies of Aratinga using two human minisatellite multilocus probes (33.6 , 33.15) and the restriction enzyme HaeIII. Hybridization with 33.6 pr oduces individual-specific patterns with 18 to 33 bands, depending on the species. The index of similarity obtained between unrelated birds was of the same order in the endangered A. guarouba (0.16) as in other Aratinga species (0.31 to 0.12) and in wild populations of birds repo rted in the literature. It was possible to perform segregation analysi s of the bands only in A. aurea, for which we studied a pedigree inclu ding five chicks. There were at least 14 unlinked loci. Also, we assig ned the parentage of three A. guarouba from a group of seven potential parents. A novel fragment was present in two siblings and absent from the third, this was interpreted as a gonadal ''mutation'' in one of t he parents. Hybridization with 33.15 revealed a low number of bands in all Aratinga species but A. jandaya where 33.2 +/- 2.5 bands were sco red. However, in all species the probe 33.15 hybridizes strongly to on e or several possibly W-chromosome specific bands. Multilocus fingerpr ints should allow individual identification, parentage assignment and probably sex determination in the genus Aratinga. Moreover, band shari ng indices can be used to prevent consanguineous matings and to mainta in the genetic diversity of these species in captivity.