A novel and simple method for genotyping the mdx mouse using high-resolution melt polymerase chain reaction.

The mdx mouse mutation arises from a C-to-T point mutation, which terminates the translation of dystrophin and results in the loss of a functional dystrophin protein. mdx mice are used widely in studies of the role of dystrophin and of potential treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, thus accurate genotyping is essential. Current methods require labor-intensive efforts and can often lead to misconstrued results. This study describes a simple and highly reliable, sensitive, and user-friendly, high-resolution melt (HRM) assay that is able to utilize DNA obtained from a variety of sources in order to genotype the known sequence variant of the mdx mouse. Muscle Nerve 39: 603-608, 2009.