A unique AT-rich hypervariable minisatellite 3' to the ApoB gene defines a high information restriction fragment length polymorphism.

A DNA restriction fragment length polymorphism has been found immediately 3' to the human apoB gene. Digestion of many different human DNAs at sites flanking the region and Southern blotting analysis reveal that this region can vary in length by approximately 300 base pairs with five alleles readily distinguishable. The length polymorphism is due to a unique AT-rich minisatellite that consists primarily of a 30-base pair tandem repeat with two structurally related subunit sequences, x (ATAATTAAATATTTT) and y (ATAATTAAAATATTT). In general, the sequences repeat in an x-y order. The AT-rich region also contains variant x and y sequences that result from C or G for A substitution. Sequence analysis of one large allele revealed the expected increased number of xy repeats. In addition, similar analysis of three different smaller alleles with the same apparent size on Southern blotting analysis showed that all were of slightly different size due to minor differences in the number of xy repeats. The heterogeneity of this AT-rich minisatellite provides the basis for a highly informative restriction fragment length polymorphism of the apoB gene and should be very useful in association and linkage analysis studies of the contribution of this locus to atherosclerosis susceptibility.