Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP)

What are SNPs?

SNPs are differences DNA at the single nucleotide level between one individual and another.

Why SNPs?

• Highly abundant markers – allow very fine mapping of traits
• SNPs can occur within gene sequences and may even be the source of mutation behind the phenotypic variation
• Co-dominant – allows determination of zygosity, therefore more informative when screening for traits
• Various technologies exist for SNP genotyping – can assay SNPs from simplex reactions (ABI Taqman) to >50,000 SNPs simultaneously (Affymetrix)

SNP portability

• There exist numerous platforms for SNP genotyping
• SNPs are generally quite portable from one platform to another
• Adopting any set of SNPs to a given platform is never 100%
• Successful conversion rate varies from 80-95%
• SNP databases are also very robust and should remain relevant even when genotyping platforms are changed
• SNPs are likely to remain the predominant marker system for the foreseeable future

DNA LandMarks can carry out SNP analysis on a wide variety of genotyping platforms in order to best suit the needs of individual projects.