The State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Life Sciences; Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies; Institute of Ecology, Peking University, Beijing, China
Institute of Tropical Biodiversity and Sustainable Development, University of Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus, Malaysia Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
The State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, School of Life Sciences; Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies; Institute of Ecology, Peking University, Beijing, China
A recent study published in Oryx proposed that the extinct Javan tiger Panthera tigris sondaica may still survive on the Island of Java, Indonesia, based on mitochondrial DNA analysis of a single hair sample collected from a location where a tiger was reportedly encountered. However, upon reanalysing the genetic data presented in that study, we conclude that there is little support for this claim. The sequences of the putative tiger hair and Javan tiger museum specimens generated are not from tiger cytoplasmic mitochondrial DNA but more likely the nuclear pseudogene copies of mitochondrial DNA. In addition, the number of mismatches between the two Javan tiger sequences is unusually high for homologous sequences that are both from tigers, suggesting potential issues with data reliability. The paper provides insufficient details on quality control measures, making it impossible to rule out the possibility that errors were introduced during the analysis. Consequently, it is inappropriate to use the sequences presented in that study to infer the existence of the Javan tiger.
