Strategies for medium-throughput automated genotyping methods

The need to genotype large numbers of individuals has assumed a great scientific and commercial importance in recent years. This has been mirrored by the requirement for and development of technologies for automating sample preparation. In the present article, we describe strategies for the automation of aspects common to many genotyping strategies. These include genomic DNA extraction, upstream polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, post-PCR sample purification and downstream sequencing and/or primer extension of purified PCR products.