Genotyping of apolipoprotein A-IV by digestion of amplified DNA with restriction endonuclease Fnu4HI: use of a tailored primer to abolish additional recognition sites during the gene amplification

Apolipoprotein A-IV (apoA-IV) is involved in the metabolism of chylomicrons and high density lipoproteins. It displays genetic polymorphism due to two co-dominant alleles apoA-IV1 and apoA-IV2. The mutation that causes the polymorphism is a G to T substitution in the third base of codon 360 in the apoA-IV2 allele which results in a glutamine (Gln) to histidine (His) change of amino acid 360. This substitution leads to the abolition of a recognition site for the restriction enzyme Fnu4HI. Part of the third exon of the apoA-IV gene is amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using a tailored primer, which abolishes the downstream recognition sites during the DNA amplification. The PCR products are digested with the restriction enzyme Fnu4HI and electrophoresed on a polyacrylamide gel. The apoA-IV genotypes are determined after staining with either ethidium bromide or silver. To validate the method, we determined the inheritance of the apoA-IV alleles in a three-generation kindred of 8 subjects and analyzed amplified DNA of 32 subjects of different apoA-IV phenotypes with this method. The results were compared to those obtained from isoelectric focusing and immunoblotting. In all cases studied, the two methods gave concordant results.