DETECTION OF THE SUSCEPTIBILITY TO SCRAPIE

摘要

It has been found that there are at least three polymorphic sites in the gene for PrP (the ''prion protein'') which are linked to the susceptibility of a bovine or ovine animal (especially a sheep) to scrapie (also known, in cattle, as bovine spongiform encephalopathy). In the non-coding 5' region, two such polymorphisms govern cleavage by EcoRI and HindIII respectively, and in the coding region, the third polymorphism changes codon 171 from CGG to CAG (arginine to glutamine). These polymorphisms can be detected by conventional assays using EcoRI, and HindIII, or equivalent enzymes, followed by a Southern blot; DNA sequence analysis, for example with PCR methods; or peptide sequence analysis.