“…Yamamoto and his colleagues reported the molecular genetic basis of the ABO group in 1990 [2], permitting analysis of ABO blood groups at the DNA level. Therefore, various PCR-based methods for ABO genotyping have been developed, including PCR-RFLP [3], MS-PCR [4], multiplexed allele-specific PCR [5,6], PCR-SSP [7,8], the universal reporter primer system [9], and real-time PCR using allele-specific primers [10]; these methods have been shown to be useful in forensic investigations. However, most of these methods have shortcomings in terms of the need for post-PCR manipulations, such as enzyme digestion and electrophoresis, and these steps can result in errors and carry-over contamination.…”