Glycosylase mediated polymorphism detection (GMPD) - a novel process for genetic analysis

A process for mutation and polymorphism detection is described here that of fers significant advances over current mutation detection systems and that has the potential to significantly enhance molecular genetic analysis of hu man disease. This novel process is referred to as glycosylase mediated poly morphism detection (GMPD) and exploits the use of highly specific DNA glyco sylase enzymes to excise substrate bases incorporated into amplified DNA. A ction of the glycosylase leaves the DNA with one or more specific abasic si tes which can be cleaved by enzymatic or chemical means. The GMPD process p ermits detection of polymorphisms and mutations using fragment size analysi s or solid phase formats. GMPD is particularly suitable for genotyping of s ingle nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) based markers and also permits efficien t scanning of genes for unknown polymorphisms and mutations. (C) 1999 Elsev ier Science B.V. All rights reserved.