Single-strand conformational polymorphism.

Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892 Polymerase chain rection-single strand conformational polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) is a simple and powerful technique for identifying sequence changes in amplified DNA. ~ It is based on the observation that the mobility of single-stranded DNA in nondenaturing polyacrylamide gels is very sensitive to primary sequence, probably because slight sequence changes have major effects on conformation. In the absence of a robust theory for predicting mobility based on conformation and conformation based on sequence, SSCP remains largely empirical. Since SSCP techniques were last reviewed in this journal, (2) there have been several improvements and new applications, which are discussed here.