Determination of <i>G</i>/<i>C</i> Polymorphism at chr20:37352001 Position in Human Blood DNA Preparations by GlaI- and Bst2UI-PCR Analyses Methods

Abstract

Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is a change of one nucleotide by another. This change often leads to an emergence (or disappearance) of a site recognized by a certain restriction endonuclease. As a result amplification of DNA fragment using primers surrounding SNP point (containing either N1 or N2 nucleotide) followed by hydrolysis of the amplicon with this restriction enzyme will be different for three possible variants in a diploid genome (genotypes N1/N1, N1/N2 and N2/N2). This method of restriction fragments length polymorphism (RFLP) is widely used in the genetic studies. Earlier we have developed GlaI- and FatI-PCR analyses methods which allowed to carry out real-time PCR and showed it applicability for SNP determination. In the current work a new way to determine the single nucleotide polymorphism G/C by the Bst2UI-PCR analysis is proposed. GlaI- and Bst2UI-PCR analyses have been used to determine the frequency of G/C polymorphism variants at the chr20:37352001 position (according to GRCH38.p14 genomic assembly) in the blood DNA samples of 161 donors. The study included: 1) the isolation of leukocyte DNA from blood cells; 2) GlaI- and Bst2UI-PCR analyses of the DNA fragment chr20:37351957-37352083, 3) determination of cytosine and guanine at the chr20:37352001 position in the analyzed DNA preparations, and 4) comparative analysis of the obtained results. It has been shown that 68 donors (42.2%) have a heterozygous set of G/C at the chr20:37352001 position, 89 donors (55.3%) are homozygous by G, and 4 donors (2.5%) are homozygous by C. Thus, taking into account that blood cells have a diploid set of chromosomes, G to C replacement occurs in 76 out of 322 analyzed cases (23.6%). At the same time, from the results obtained it follows that the cytosine residue complementary to G at the chr20:37352001 position exists in methylated form (5-methylcytosine) in most of the DNA molecules, both in homo- and heterozygotes. The proposed method of Bst2UI-PCR analyses extends the possibilites of SNP determination using real-time PCR.