Concept of VNTR alleles: comparison of apolipoprotein B 3' hypervariable region genotyping results obtained by three methods.

In this study the apolipoprotein B 3' hypervariable region genotyping results obtained by three polymerase chain reaction and gel electrophoresis -based methods were compared. In 43 subjects of Finnish origin three individuals had each one allele (3.5%) which exhibited different migration when the apolipoprotein B 3' hypervariable region amplification products were separated on nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis as compared to agarose or denaturing polyacrylamide gels. Segregation of the variantly migrating alleles could be demonstrated in pedigrees suggesting that the variation might be due to differences in the DNA sequence among alleles with same apparent size on agarose or denaturing polyacrylamide gels.