Multiplex PCR, amplicon size and hybridization efficiency on the NanoChip electronic microarray

We tested the SNP typing protocol developed for the NanoChip electronic microarray by analyzing the four Y chromosome loci SRY1532, SRY8299, TAT, and 92R7. Amplicons of different lengths containing the same locus were purified and addressed to the NanoChip array and fluorescently labelled reporter probes were hybridized to the amplicons. We demonstrated that as little as 10-30 fmol of 50 bp DNA amplicons was sufficient to obtain strong and reproducible results. The hybridization to 50 bp amplicons was up to 10 times more efficient than the hybridization to 200 bp amplicons containing the same SNP. Hybridization to individual amplicons in multiplexes was less efficient suggesting that intramolecular and intermolecular interactions may block access to the target sequence on the NanoChip array. We observed a high risk of contamination with amplicons shorter than 60 bp and therefore, we recommend the use of 60-200 bp amplicons for SNP typing analysis on the NanoChip platform. In a comparative study, we typed the 5 Y chromosome loci M173, 92R7, P25, SRY1532, and M9 in 400 males using the NanoChip SNP typing protocol and the SNaPshot kit. Concording results were obtained for all samples demonstrating the accuracy of the NanoChip SNP typing protocol.