Allele-dropout using PCR-based diagnosis for the splicing mutation in intron-2 of the CYP21B-gene: successful amplification with a Taq/Pwo-polymerase mixture.

The splicing mutation in intron 2 (nucleotide 656) of the 21-hydroxylase gene (CYP21B) is the most common mutation causing congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). Homozygosity for nt656G is associated with the classical phenotype of CAH. In several studies, a number of clinically asymptomatic relatives of CAH-patients were genotyped as nt656G homozygotes. We have proposed that the putative asymptomatic nt656G/G individuals are incorrectly typed due to dropout of one allele (in most cases nt656C) during PCR amplification. Here, we report the successful amplification of all alleles at nt656 with a Taq/Pwo DNA polymerase mixture in the primary PCR reaction. The results were independent from the type of polymerase used for sequencing reactions as the second step in mutation analysis.