Heteroduplices

Melting differences of heteroduplices compared to homoduplices are probably influenced by both the mutation and the surrounding sequence, e.g. for the 3905insT-mutation where one additional T is inserted into a stretch of 6 Ts.

Because more homoduplices than heteroduplices develop after rehybridization, a rather intense background pattern is obtained from the digested homoduplices, which can cause the interesting bands to disappear.

The DGGE technique allows for verification of heteroplasmy through the resolution of mismatch-containing heteroduplices from fully base-paired homoduplices in an increasingly denaturing environment.