A NOVEL PCR-BASED METHODOLOGY TO DETERMINE TAP ALLELE FREQUENCIES IN POPULATION STUDIES

The TAP genes have been extensively studied as candidate susceptibilit y genes for autoimmune and infectious diseases. TAP1 and TAP:! have tw o and three polymorphic sites respectively which are used for the alle le assignment following WHO nomenclature. The usual techniques employe d to determine the TAP alleles cannot unequivocally ascertain the alle les present in subjects which are heterozygous at more than one polymo rphic position within the genes. This results in an inability to deter mine absolute TAP allele frequencies in population studies, The aim of this study was to devise a PCR-based method to unambiguously assign T AP alleles to all subjects. The novel method was tested in Oriental Ty pe I diabetic and control subjects. The technique is a valuable tool f or allele assignment in heterozygous subjects solely using PCR.