A method of
genotyping blood cell antigens comprising subjecting
DNA from an individual of a mammalian species to a
multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to amplify and detectably
label a region of the locus of at least two different
blood cell antigens which contains the site of
nucleotide polymorphism of said
blood cell antigen and using the thus amplified and labeled
DNA fragments to determine the
genotype for each of said blood
cell antigens. The
multiplex PCR comprises the use of at least one pair of blood
cell antigen-specific chimeric primers for each blood
cell antigen to be genotyped and at least one detectably labeled universal primer, preferably a pair of detectably labeled universal primers. The universal primer(s) have a unique sequence not occurring in the
DNA of said mammalian species. Each chimeric primer pair comprises a left chimeric primer and a right chimeric primer, each of them comprising a blood cell antigen-specific part at the 3' end and a universal part at the 5' end. The
base sequence of the universal part of the chimeric primers corresponds to the
base sequence of said at lea st one universal primer. The blood cell antigen-specific parts of the chimeric primer pair enclose a region of the locus of the blood cell antigen which contains the site of
nucleotide polymorphism of said blood cell antigen. A k it for
genotyping blood cell antigens by this method. A set of blood cell antig en- specific chimeric primer pairs and a set of blood cell antigen
allele-specif ic
oligonucleotide probes.