ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Published Online: 1 November 2003
Page Count: 5

Novel Paternity Testing by Distinguishing Parental Alleles at a VNTR Locus in the Differentially Methylated Region Upstream of the Human H19 Gene
(Received 15 July 2003; accepted 8 July 2003)

Abstract

Conventional PCR-based genotyping is useful for forensic testing but cannot be used to determine parental origins of alleles in DNA specimens. Here we describe a novel method of combined conventional genotyping and PIA typing (parentally imprinted allele typing) at a minisatellite region upstream from the H19 locus. The PIA typing uses two sets of primers and DNA digested with methylation-sensitive Hha I enzyme. The first amplification produces only the methylated fragment of paternal H19 allele, and the second detects polymorphism in the minisatellite. Hence, this distinguishes paternal and maternal alleles by difference in the DNA methylation. Furthermore, the polymorphism in this polymorphic locus was examined using 199 unrelated Japanese and 171 unrelated Germans, their polymorphism information content being 0.671 and 0.705, respectively. Feasibility of this typing is demonstrated for six families, and the usefulness is shown by application to paternity testing.

Keywords:
forensic science, paternity testing, human H19 gene, minisatellite, parentally imprinted allele typing, DNA methylation

Paper ID: JFS2002439
DOI: 10.1520/JFS2002439
ASTM International is a member of CrossRef.