DHPLC（Denaturing High Performance Liquid Chromatography）を用いた男女識別

A novel method for sex identification using a denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) system is described. Among many methods for identifying sex, the most popular and credible system has been the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method using the nucleotide primer sets of the amelogenin gene, which is shared on both the X and Y chromosomes. In this conventional method, the judgment depends on the detection of the size difference between the PCR products derived from the X and Y chromosomes. In this study, we adopted DHPLC to detect the difference by checking heteroduplex formation between the products, which enabled us to shorten the PCR products down to 45 bp and the separation time within 8 minutes. This new system may have a wide application in many different fields such as forensic medicine, prenatal diagnosis, inbreeding of animals and anthropology.