DIRECT SEQUENCING OF THE HUMAN PROTAMINE P1 GENE AND APPLICATION IN FORENSIC MEDICINE

Protamines are among the most variable nuclear proteins known in eukru yotes. In order to learn more about their evolution and function in hu mans and to explore the possibility of potential applications in foren sic medicine we have developed a rapid method to amplify and directly sequence the protamine P1 gene simultaneously in many different sample s. The method takes only 3.5 h from genomic DNA to the sequencing reac tions. Despite the high variability of these genes only one polymorphi c site was detected at the coding region level in different individual s. This polymorphic variation does not create a change in the amino-ac id sequence of the protamine. Because all the protamine genes sequence d from different species are markedly different among them as well as to the human sequence, amplification and direct sequencing of this gen e can be used to unequivocally identify the human or animal origin of biological specimens. Furthermore, the single poly morphic site detect ed in the human P1 gene could be useful in conjunction with other mark ers in identification studies in humans.