BATCHED ANALYSIS OF GENOTYPES

polymorphic microsatellite markers are widely used in molecular analys es. The range of allele sizes and the allele frequencies within a popu lation are important characteristics of the marker. Their determinatio n previously has involved genotyping a large number of individuals. We have developed a technique for defining these characteristics by coam plification of many samples in a DNA pool. Groups of 32 and 42 DNA sam ples were genotyped and results were compared with those from individu al genotype determinations. To improve the accuracy in the estimation of allele frequencies, arithmetic removal of stutter bands was carried out and the consistency of each marker was characterized. This approa ch was also applied to a group of 94 Individuals. All of the work has been done using nonradioactive methods. potential applications of this technique are In population genetics, high throughput genotyping, and loss of heterozygosity studies.