PCR amplification of alleles at locus D17S5: detection of new and rare long-length alleles by oligoprobing in a survey of Australian populations.

Alleles of the hypervariable human locus D17S5 were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and categorized by length. Unlike other surveys of this locus, the products of amplification were authenticated by Southern analysis using an oligomeric probe directed to part of the 70-base-pair (bp) variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) region. A small number of unusually long alleles were located. In a survey of 201 unrelated Caucasian individuals, 16 alleles (size range, 170-1430 bp) and 59 genotypes were observed (heterozygosity, 86.4%; discriminating power, 0.963). In a similar survey of 166 traditional Australian aboriginals, 18 alleles (size range, 170-1430 bp) and 46 genotypes were found (heterozygosity, 80.8%; discriminating power, 0.942). The allele frequencies differed significantly between these two ethnically distinct populations. Comparisons are made with other anthropologically diverse populations.