ABSTRACT
Recent striking developments in molecular biology have demonstrated that small mutations of certain genes are the definite origin of many heritable disorders and cancers. These findings have highlighted the importance of gene mutation assays in the field of medical diagnosis. For the detection of change in the DNA base sequence, various methods have been proposed. The methods may be classified into two categories. One relies on a sequence-specific enzymatic reaction, the other relies on an oligonucleotide probe. Enzyme-based methods may be more convenient and reliable in some cases, whereas the methods based on nucleic acid hybridization should be more general and widely applicable. Most of the latter methods take advantage of immobilized single-stranded DNA (ssDNA).
