We use some essential cookies to make this website work.
We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use forestresearch.gov.uk, remember your settings and improve our services.
We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.
Preparing to search
The early approaches used by Forest Research involving biochemical markers such as terpenes and isozymes have been largely superseded by DNA based methods.
The DNA based methods utilise the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to copy and multiply up small regions of the genome using short nucleotide sequences known as primers. The initial PCR methods that were used were RAPDs (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA) and these required no prior knowledge of the genome in order to work.
We have now progressed to more sophisticated approaches such as microsatellites which require sequence information in order to work. Microsatellites are regions of short tandem repeats which tend to be highly variable. This feature makes them very useful for genotyping individuals and exploring the genetic structure of populations and the geneflow ocurring within them.
The molecular laboratory at Forest Research has worked on the following species:
As an approach to monitoring black grouse populations, we developed a real-time PCR based assay to distinguish between faecal droppings from black grouse and two other tetraonid species that can occur sympatrically; red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scoticus) and capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) in order to monitor black grouse populations.
The real-time PCR approach is several orders of magnitude more sensitive than traditional PCR methods and is, therefore, appropriate for field collected faecal samples which tend to yield poor quality DNA in low copy number.
Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website.
We use cookies to store information about how you use the dwi.gov.uk website, such as the pages you visit.
Find out more about cookies on forestresearch.gov.uk
We use 3 types of cookie. You can choose which cookies you're happy for us to use.
These essential cookies do things like remember your progress through a form. They always need to be on.
We use Google Analytics to measure how you use the website so we can improve it based on user needs. Google Analytics sets cookies that store anonymised information about: how you got to the site the pages you visit on forestresearch.gov.uk and how long you spend on each page what you click on while you're visiting the site
Some forestresearch.gov.uk pages may contain content from other sites, like YouTube or Flickr, which may set their own cookies. These sites are sometimes called ‘third party’ services. This tells us how many people are seeing the content and whether it’s useful.