RAPID DETECTION OF MITOCHONDRIAL SEQUENCE POLYMORPHISMS USING MULTIPLEX SOLID-PHASE FLUORESCENT MINISEQUENCING

This work describes a novel method, multiplex solid-phase fluorescent minisequencing, for the simultaneous detection of several point mutati ons and/or small deletions and insertions. The method is applied to th e analysis of mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms for the purposes of indi vidual identification. A database of 152 British Caucasians and 103 Br itish Afro-Caribbeans has been constructed, and the probability of a c hance match between two unrelated individuals is calculated as 0.054 f or Caucasians and 0.026 for Afro-Caribbeans. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.