Interpretation of polymorphic DNA patterns in the human alpha-amylase multigene family

Previous molecular studies have clearly shown that the human amylase locus has a very complicated structure. Multiple salivary and pancreatic amylase genes are present on haplotypes with variable numbers of genes. To study the population heterogeneity, human genomic DNA from family members and random individuals was digested with a number of different restriction enzymes and hybridized with probes representing various parts of the human pancreatic amylase cDNA. The complex patterns obtained were, in most cases, compatible with predictions from the restriction enzyme maps of cloned human amylase genes. With some enzymes deviations from the predicted intensities of the bands associated with the pancreatic amylase gene AMY2A were observed. These findings can be explained by unequal homologous crossovers between AMY2A and AMY1A, resulting in haplotypes with one gene less or one gene more than the haplotypes described thus far. Moreover, a very complicated TaqI polymorphism was found that can be explained by homologous crossovers between different salivary amylase genes. Because some salivary amylase genes have an inverted orientation with respect to the others, these data provide evidence for the occurrence of intrachromosomal, homologous crossovers, as proposed by us previously (P. C. Groot et al., 1990, Genomics 8: 97-105).