Genetic timber tracking of Larix sp. in Eurasia

We sampled Larix sp. individuals over Eurasia and conducted genotyping at four chloroplast microsatellite and 253 newly developed SNP loci. Both marker types showed a very clear geographical pattern corresponding in Russia to different Larix species. The best SNP loci were selected to develop next sets of 76 and 13 loci for respectively cost-effective MassARRAY and SNaPShot genotyping. Genetic assignment tests provided theoretical success rates between 73 and 90% according to the marker set used. An analysis of timber samples showed varying amplification success rates, but demonstrated the feasibility of larch timber tracking with molecular markers at the regional level. We further discussed statistical improvements needed for forensic applications.