Rapid identification of the ABO genotypes by their single-stand conformation polymorphism

The ABO locus on chromosome 9 contains many more alleles than are currently used routinely in forensic science. The use of singe-strand conformation p olymorphism (SSCP) can separate sequence polymorphisms that differ by only one base. The SSCP process used allows for both single- and double-stranded polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products to be visualized. The six ABO gen otypes can be differentiated by the allele-specific B and O SSCP patterns. The double-stranded DNA produced 'hybrid' bands due to heterozygous samples and allowed sequence diversity to be detected between alleles of heterozyg otes. These 'hybrid' bands are valid markers to confirm genotypes of specim ens.