The properties of human DNA fingerprints produced by polymeric monocore probes (PMC probes)

The properties of human DNA fingerprints detected by multilocus polymeric m onocore probes (PMC probes) have been investigated. The PMC probes were pro duced by the polymerase chain reaction with two partly complementary oligon ucleotides homologous to various minisatellite or microsatellite core seque nces (Ijdo J, Wells RA, Baldini A, Reeders ST. Nucleic Acids Res 1991;19:47 80). It has been shown that these probes possess increased sensitivity, the y detect considerably more hypervariable fragments in genomic DNA thus exhi biting advantages over the corresponding oligonucleotides and natural polyc ore minisatellite probes. Variation in the DNA fingerprints of different in dividuals produced by these probes indicates that the probability of accide ntal identity is very low ( < 10(-12)). According to the data of cross-hybr idization with PMC probes of various specificity, several distinct families can be distinguished among G-rich hypervariable sequences of the human gen ome. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.