Flow chart HLA-DQA1 genotyping and its application to a forensic case

The detection of genetic polymorphism has become increasingly important in forensic science as well as in medical genetics. In this report, we describe a systematic flow chart system for HLA-DQA1 genotyping by an improved PCR-RFLP (polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism) method coupled with the PRSM (PCR-mediated restriction site modification) method. This flow chart typing system can easily discriminate between a total of eight reported DQA1 alleles commonly found in Chinese. We have applied this flow chart typing system in a forensic case as well as in the determination of the frequencies of the eight DQA1 alleles in 121 unrelated Taiwan Chinese subjects. Our results show that the flow chart DQA1 genotyping is a simple, fast, and accurate system which, in the future, may be considered as an alternative method for routine individual identification in forensic casework, and for paternity testing and tissue typing in medical genetics.