High polymorphism level of genomic sequences flanking insertion sites of human endogenous retroviral long terminal repeats

The polymorphism at the multitude of loci adjacent to human endogenous retr ovirus long terminal repeats (LTRs) mas analyzed by a technique for whole g enome differential display based on the PCR suppression effect that provide s selective amplification acid display of genomic sequences flanking inters persed repeated elements. This strategy is simple, target-specific, require s a small amount of DNA and provides reproducible and highly informative da ta. The average frequency of polymorphism observed in the vicinity of the L TR insertion sites was found to be about 12%. The high incidence of polymor phism within the LTR flanks together with the frequent location of LTRs nea r genes makes the LTR loci a useful source of polymorphic markers for gene mapping. (C) 1999 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.