ANALYSIS OF ALLELIC STRUCTURES AT THE D7S21 (MS31A) LOCUS IN THE JAPANESE, USING MINISATELLITE VARIANT REPEAT MAPPING BY PCR (MVR-PCR)

To sample the diversity of allelic structures at the D7S21 (MS31A) loc us in the Japanese, allele-specific minisatellite variant repeat mappi ng using polymerase chain reaction (MVR-PCR) was performed on genomic DNA from a number of Japanese individuals. Three polymorphic positions in the MS31A 5' flanking DNA were typed from 214 un-related Japanese, and the distribution of haplotypes was analysed. Allele-specific MVR- PCR, using primers that discriminate between different alleles at thes e polymorphic positions in heterozygous individuals, allows single all eles to be mapped from genomic DNA in approximately 80% of Japanese. 1 49 Japanese alleles have been mapped to date and all of them, except f or two pairs of indistinguishable alleles, have different internal str uctures. More than half of the mapped alleles showed similar regions o f internal structure to other alleles and were classified into groups on this basis.