Fluorescence-Based Automated Fragment Analysis of Microsatellite Polymorphism within the Transmembrane Region of the <i>MIC-A</i> Gene

Novota, Peter; Kolesár, L.; Slavčev, A.; Černá, M.

doi:10.14712/fb2004050010021

Fol. Biol. 2004, 50, 21-23

https://doi.org/10.14712/fb2004050010021

Fluorescence-Based Automated Fragment Analysis of Microsatellite Polymorphism within the Transmembrane Region of the MIC-A Gene

Peter Novota^1,2, L. Kolesár², A. Slavčev², M. Černá¹

¹Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic
²Department of Immunogenetics, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic

Received November 2003
Accepted January 2004

MHC class I chain-related genes (MIC) are located within the MHC class I region of chromosome 6. Sequence analysis of the MIC-A gene showed a trinucleotide repeat (GCT) microsatellite polymorphism within the transmembrane region. So far, six alleles of the exon 5 of the MIC-A gene, which consist of 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10 repetitions of GCT, or five repetitions of GCT with an additional nucleotide insertion (GGCT), have been identified. Recent works support the findings that MIC-A is associated with several autoimmune diseases. In our work we present a modification of a method used for microsatellite polymorphism detection within the transmembrane region of the MIC-A gene. It is the ALFexpress fluorescence-based automated fragment analysis. We also present the frequencies of MIC-A exon 5 alleles found in the Czech population. We have identified five alleles of the transmembrane region of MIC-A, which comprise 4, 5, 6 and 9 repetitions or five repetitions with an additional nucleotide insertion. The most frequent allele was A5.1 (59.3%) and the less frequent was the allele A5 (20.0%). No A7, A8 or A10 alleles were identified.