Capillary and microelectrophoretic separations of ligase detection reaction products produced from low-abundant point mutations in genomic DNA.

Capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE) and polymer-based microelectrophoretic platforms were investigated to analyze low-abundant point mutations in certain gene fragments with high diagnostic value for colorectal cancers. The electrophoretic separations were carried out on single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) products generated from an allele-specific ligation assay (ligase detection reaction, LDR), which was used to screen for a single base mutation at codon 12 in the K-ras oncogene. The presence of the mutation generated a ssDNA fragment that was >40 base pairs (bp) in length, while the primers used for the ligation assay were <30 bp in length. Various separation matrices were investigated, with the success of the matrix assessed by its ability to resolve the ligation product from the large molar excess of unligated primers when the mutant allele was lower in copy number compared to the wild-type allele. Using CGE, LDR product models (44 and 51 bp) could be analyzed in a cross-linked polyacrylamide gel with a 1000-fold molar excess of LDR primers (25 bp) in approximately 45 min. However, when using linear polyacrylamide gels, these same fragments could not be detected due to significant electrokinetic biasing during injection. A poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) microchip of 3.5 cm effective column length was used with a 4% linear polyacrylamide gel to analyze the products generated from an LDR. When the reaction contained a 100-fold molar excess of wild-type DNA compared to a G12.2D mutant allele, the 44 bp ligation product could be effectively resolved from unligated primers in under 120 s, nearly 17 times faster than the CGE format. In addition, sample cleanup was simplified using the microchip format by not requiring desalting of the LDR prior to loading.