Analysis of Amplified Fragment-Length Polymorphisms (VNTR/STR Loci) for Human Identity Testing

Highly polymorphic variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) loci have proven very useful for human DNA testing purposes (1 -3 ). Initially, these variants were characterized by restriction fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Subsequently, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) provided significant methodological improvements, particularly enhanced sensitivity and specificity (4 ). The PCR-based technology for detection of VNTR alleles has been termed amplified fragment-length polymorphism (AMP-FLP) analysis (5 ). AMP-FLP analysis already has proven useful for the detection of multiallelic profiles (6 ), D17S5 (7 ), the 3’ hypervariable region of the apolipoprotein B gene (8 ,9 ), and particularly D1S80 (5 ,10 ).