Methods for Determining 2-Adrenoreceptor Genotype

Polymorphisms of the β₂ -adrenoceptor (β₂ AR) have been the focus of much interest as part of the search to elucidate the genetic basis of asthma and allergic disease. More recently, these polymorphisms have also been implicated in the genetic etiology of essential hypertension (1 ,2 ) and obesity (3 ,4 ). This chapter describes in detail the method of allele-specific-oligonucleotide hybridization (ASO), a technique that has been used extensively by the authors’ group to determine β₂ AR genotype. This method should prove useful not only to those intending to analyze β₂ AR polymorphisms, but also for the analysis of other candidate genes, given that this technique can be adapted and applied to any known single-base mutation.