Fluorescence polarization for single nucleotide polymorphism genotyping

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are the most abundant variations in the human genome and have become the primary markers for genetic studies for mapping and identifying susceptible genes for complex diseases. Methods that genotype SNPs quickly and economically are of high values for these studies because they require a large amount of genotyping. Fluorescence polarization (FP) is a robust technique that can detect products without separation and purification and it has been applied for SNP genotyping. In this article the applications of FP in SNP genotyping are reviewed and one of the methods, the FP-TDI assay, is discussed in details. It is hoped that readers could get useful information for the applications of FP in SNP genotyping and some insights of the FP-TDI assay.