High-accuracy DNA sequence variation screening by DHPLC

Genetic maps based on biallelic single-nucleotide polymorphisms amenable to microarray-based genotyping have significantly accelerated the mapping of mono- and multigenic traits in model organisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Arabidopsis thaliana. This advance needs to be matched by highly accurate, inexpensive and robust methodology for fine-structure mapping of the candidate region(s) and the eventual identification of the causative mutation(s). To establish the usefulness of denaturing high-performance liquid chromotography (DHPLC) for those purposes, we have amplified 476 fragments from two A. thaliana ecotypes with an average length of 563 bl, covering various candidate regions on chromosomes 1, 2 and 4. Parallel analysis by DHPLC and dye terminator sequencing showed that DHPLC detected 165 out of 166 polymorphic fragments with only four false positives, amounting to a sensitivity; specificity and accuracy of 99.4%, 98.7% and 99%, respectively. It proved beneficial to analyze the fragments not only at the highest but also at the lower temperatures recommended by the algorithm freely available at http://insertion. stanford. edu/melt. html.