Genetic markers for oncogenes, growth factors, and cystic fibrosis.

The techniques of molecular biology have had a dramatic effect on the advancement of human genetics. In particular, the development of restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) has allowed researchers to generate genetic markers for virtually any region of the human genome. Most RFLPs occur when a mutation creates or deletes a recognition site for a restriction enzyme, generating a DNA fragment of altered size. In the simplest case this will create two alleles. A DNA probe which hybridizes to this fragment will detect the presence of these alleles in the DNA from different individuals. Probes used to detected RFLPs have been derived from both cloned genes and randomly isolated DNA segments. Thus, each RFLP is a genetically inherited marker for a precise location on a chromosome. By analyzing the inheritance of RFLPs in families, linkage analysis techniques