GENETIC TYPING OF THE DQA1-ASTERISK-4 ALLELES BY RESTRICTION ENZYME DIGESTION OF THE PCR PRODUCT OBTAINED WITH THE DQ-ALPHA-AMPLITYPE(TM) KIT

The three DQ Alpha 4 alleles, 4.1 (0501), 4.2 (0401), and 4.3 (0601) c annot be distinguished with the reverse dot blot DQ Alpha Amplitype(TM ) Kit. A previous report (Yunis, 1. et al., Tissue Antigens, Vol. 39, 1992, pp. 182-186) indicated that the typing of these three alleles ca n be accomplished by endonuclease digestion of the PCR product that is produced following amplification with the DQ Alpha primers with Fok I and Rsa 1. We report here the use of this method to type the DQA1040 1, 0501 and 0601 alleles in the PCR product obtained with the DQ Alpha -Amplitype(TM) Kit. We have analyzed the PCR product obtained in over 200 forensic samples. We have found that in all of these cases, it is possible to assign a type to those samples that type as DQ Alpha 4 wit h the Amplitype Kit. Furthermore, we have found the technique to be us eful in some cases where it has not been previously possible to distin guish individuals or samples that have the DQ Alpha 4 allele and type identically with respect to all other DQ Alpha alleles.