Geneticist warns against misusing Y chromosome test
The buccal smear test for the Y chromosome which has recently captured so much scientific interest should be applied with caution in population studies such as searches for XYY-bearing males, according to Digamber S. Borgaonkar, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Although the fluorescein dye assay developed in Stockholm and Oxford seems to be able to pick out most Y chromosomes reliably, the test provides little other information at the present time, he said.
The director of the Chromosome Laboratory at Johns Hopkins issued this warning note to students attending the Short Course in Medical Genetics which is conducted annually by Johns Hopkins and the Jackson Laboratory of Bar Harbor, Maine, and sponsored by the National Foundation—March of Dimes.
Dr. Borgaonkar said that the buccal smear for the Y chromosome has the same major limitation
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