DNA sequencing and multiplex STR analysis on plastic microfluidic devices

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Abstract
The ability of plastic microfluidic devices with separation channel lengths of 6, 10 or 18 cm to perform high‐quality and high‐performance ssDNA analysis was evaluated. Specifically, four‐color DNA sequencing separation of a terminator sequencing standard using replaceable, urea‐denaturing linear polyacrylamide (LPA) solution as a sieving matrix, yielded read lengths of 410 bases in 15 min with base calling accuracy of 99.2% on a 6‐cm device, and 640 bases in 35 min with accuracy of 98.0% on a 18‐cm device. A two‐color sizing analysis of four‐locus (CSF1PO, TPOX, TH01, vWA) short tandem repeats (STRs) allelic ladder on a 10‐cm device indicated a mean SD of ± 0.08 base pairs (bp) between runs, and single bp resolution of spiked TH01 allele 9.3 (198 bp) from TH01 allele 10 (199 bp) of the CTTv ladder with R = 0.81. A four‐color multiplex sizing analysis of three different AmpFlSTR allelic ladders consisting of nine loci (D3S1358, vWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820) and gender alleles (Amelogenin) on a 10‐cm device had a mean SD of ± 0.15 bp between runs for sizing three loci, i.e., FGA, D18S51 and D3S818; alleles differing by 2 bp in size were resolved with resolutions close to baseline. This work demonstrates that plastic microfluidic devices are capable of quality sequencing and STR sizing comparable to that of glass devices of similar separation lengths.