Rapid method for separation of microsatellite alleles by the PhastSystem.

1Institute for Biochemistry and Protein Research, Zlnstitute for Molecular Genetics, Agricultural Biotechnology Center, H-2101, GOdOll6, Hungary Microsatellites are tandemly repeated short (1-6 bp) simple sequences that are highly abundant in most eukaryotic genomes. (1-4) Because of the variation in the number of repeats, these microsatellites show extensive length polymorphism. Thus, they are very effective as genetic markers for linkage analysis, paternity testing, or population analysis. Microsatellites are detected by using PCR, and the resulting products are separated by agarose or polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. (s) As alleles often differ in length by only 2 bp, the most accurate detection can be achieved by radioactive PCR and denaturing sequencing gels. In this paper we report an alternative nonisotopic, high-resolution method for the separation of microsatellite alleles on a partially automated electrophoretic system, the PhastSystem (Pharmacia).