A new simple method for estimation of allelic frequencies using pooled samples

Today several millions polymorphic sites in human genome are well described. Many investigators are studying the association between these polymorphisms and susceptibility to multifactorial traits. These polymorphisms are also used for studying the population's genetic structures. Here, we introduce a new simple one step method for estimating the allelic frequency of polymorphic sites in pooled samples. The method is based on measurement of the intensity of polymorphic bands on agarose gel electrophoresis. This method is very simple, rapid, inexpensive, and is more sensitive compared to the chip-based matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry method. •DNA pooling is a method for reducing the cost and effort of large scale association studies.•Several methods have been introduced for estimating the allelic frequencies in pooled samples.•Here we describe a new protocol to estimate the allelic frequencies in pooled DNA sample.•The method is based on measuring the intensity of polymorphic bands on gel electrophoresis.•The method is simple, rapid, cheap and more sensitive compared to some other methods.