Novel linkage mapping approach using DNA pooling in human and animal genetics. I. Detection of complex disease loci.

DNA pooling is a potential methodology for genetic loci with small effect contributing to complex diseases and quantitative traits. This is accomplished by the rapid preliminary screening of the genome for the allelic association with the most common class of polymorphic short tandem repeat markers. The methodology assumes as a common founder for the linked disease locus of interest and searches for a region of a chromosome shared between affected individuals. The general theory of DNA pooling basically relies on the observed differences in the allelic distribution between pools from affected and unaffected individuals, including a reduction in the number of alleles in the affected pool, which indicate the sharing of a chromosomal region. The power of statistic for associated linkage mapping can be determined using two recently developed strategies, firstly, by measuring the differences of allelic image patterns produced by two DNA pools of extreme character and secondly, by measuring total allele content differences by comparing between two pools containing large numbers of DNA samples. These strategies have effectively been utilized to identify the shared chromosomal regions for linkage studies and to investigate the candidate disease loci for fine structure gene mapping using allelic association. This paper outlines the utilization of DNA pooling as a potential tool to locate the complex disease loci, statistical methods for accurate estimates of allelic frequencies from DNA pools, its advantages, drawbacks and significance in associate linkage mapping using pooled DNA samples.