Determination of microsatellite repeats in the human thyroid peroxidase (TPOX) gene using an automated gene analysis system with nanoscale engineered biomagnetite

The number of repeat in the microsatellite region (AATG)_5-14 of the human thyroid peroxidase gene (TOPX) was determined using an automated DNA analysis system with nano-scale engineered biomagnetite. Thermal melting curve analysis of DNA duplexes on biomagnetite indicated that shorter repeat sequences (less than 9 repeats) were easily discriminated. However, it was difficult to determine the number of repeats at more than nine. In order to improve the selectivity of this method for the longer repeats, a "double probe hybridization assay" was performed in which an intermediate probe was used to replace a target repeat sequence having more than 9 repeats with a shorter sequence possessing less than 9 repeats. Thermal probe melting curve analyses and T_m determination confirmed that the target with 10 repeats was converted to 5 repeats, 11 repeats converted to 4 and 12 to 3, respectively. Furthermore, rapid determination of repeat numbers was possible by measuring fluorescence intensities obtained by probe dissociation at 56 and 66 °C, and 40, 60 and 80 °C for signal normalization.