Mutational Dynamics of Microsatellites

Microsatellites are a ubiquitous class of simple repetitive DNA sequences, which are widespread in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes. The use of microsatellites as polymorphic DNA markers has considerably increased both in the number of studies and in the number of organisms, primarily for gen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecular biotechnology 2010-03, Vol.44 (3), p.250-266
Main Authors: Bhargava, Atul, Fuentes, F. F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Biochemistry
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Techniques
Biotechnology
Cell Biology
Chemistry
Chemistry and Materials Science
Conservation biology
Conservation genetics
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Eukaryota
Evolution, Molecular
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetic Markers
Genetics
Genomics
Human Genetics
Humans
Microsatellite Repeats
Models, Genetic
Mutation
Population genetics
Protein Science
Review
Satellite DNA
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Summary:Microsatellites are a ubiquitous class of simple repetitive DNA sequences, which are widespread in both eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes. The use of microsatellites as polymorphic DNA markers has considerably increased both in the number of studies and in the number of organisms, primarily for genetic mapping, studying genomic instability in cancer, population genetics, forensics, conservation biology, molecular anthropology and in the studies of human evolutionary history. Although simple sequence repeats have been extensively used in studies encompassing varied areas of genetics, the mutation dynamics of these genome regions is still not well understood. The present review focuses on the mutational dynamics of microsatellite DNA with special reference to mutational mechanisms and their role in microsatellite evolution.
ISSN:1073-6085
1559-0305
DOI:10.1007/s12033-009-9230-4