COMPARISON OF SLAB GEL-ELECTROPHORESIS AND CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS FOR THE DETECTION OF THE FLUORESCENTLY LABELED POLYMERASE-CHAIN-REACTION PRODUCTS OF SHORT TANDEM REPEAT FRAGMENTS

The sizing capability of slab gel electrophoresis for short tandem rep eat (STR) fragments was compared to the sizing capability of capillary electrophoresis (CE). Both systems used automated laser fluorescence detection to detect four fluorescent dyes, enabling the use of an inte rnal lane standard within each sample. The STR fragments were amplifie d using a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in which the STR f ragments Hum CD-4, Hum TH01, Hum D21S11 and Hum SE33 were amplified si multaneously. The reproducibility of the size calling was determined f or both systems. The average standard deviation obtained for the slab gel system was 0.2, which was comparable to the standard deviation of 0.12 obtained for the CE system. The CE system produced results compar able to those obtained on the slab gel system, with a level of precisi on of +/-1.0 bp (between instruments). (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.