Genetic Monitoring Based on Electrophoresis

There are a number of considerations which make it clear that the initial system proposed is less than perfect. These have recently been dealt with at some length (Neel, 1971 Weitkamp, 1971), and only a brief recapitulation is included here. 

Second, discrepancies between legal and biological parentage introduce unavoidable noise into the system. With present techniques [including testing for the histocompatibility (HLA) antigens], in excess of 90% of such occurrences can be detected and, further, an estimate can be developed of the fraction of apparent mutations which must actually be attributed to undetected discrepancies. 

the occurrence of genetic polymorphisms with respect to some of the proteins which otherwise meet all of the criteria will detract from the usefulness of these particular indicators. In effect, this means that certain classes of forward or backward mutations cannot be detected. It would appear that suitable mathematical allowances can be made for this fact, but obviously for monitoring purposes it would be wise to avoid the polymorphic proteins insofar as possible. Whether this decision would introduce an element of bias with respect to the mutability of the proteins concerned is a moot question. 

A fifth weakness of the approach is the 2issumption that a child with 

Finally, possibilities for the study of somatic-cell mutation rates in man are emerging cf. Sutton, 1971, 1972). If these methods could be substituted for studies of germinal-cell mutation rates, this would be highly desirable, since they will involve only a fraction of the effort and expense. An absolute sine qua non of any use of somatic-cell mutation rates to monitor human populations is that there has been at le2ist one extensive study in which both somatic-cell and germinal-cell mutation rates have been studied simultaneously in the same population. 

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