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Related Experiment Videos

Microsatellite evolution inferred from human-chimpanzee genomic sequence alignments.

Matthew T Webster1, Nick G C Smith, Hans Ellegren

  • 1Department of Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18D, SE-752 36 Uppsala, Sweden. matthew.webster@ebc.uu.se

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|June 19, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Microsatellite evolution is highly variable, differing by repeat length and species. Longer microsatellite DNA sequences evolve faster and are more mutable, impacting genetic distance measures.

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Area of Science:

  • Genomics
  • Molecular Evolution
  • Population Genetics

Background:

  • Most microsatellite evolution studies use unrepresentative, highly mutable loci.
  • Simple repeats constitute the majority of the human genome's microsatellites.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the mutation process of tandemly repetitive DNA using an unbiased sample of human and chimpanzee microsatellites.
  • To understand microsatellite evolution heterogeneity across different lengths, motif sizes, and species.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 2,467 microsatellite loci from aligned human and chimpanzee genomic sequences (5.1 Mb).
  • Comparison of microsatellite lengths, motif sizes, divergence rates, and mutability between human and chimpanzee orthologues.

Main Results:

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  • Microsatellite evolution is highly heterogeneous, varying by locus length, motif size, and species.
  • Human dinucleotide repeats are significantly longer than chimpanzee orthologues; mononucleotide repeats show the opposite trend.
  • Longer microsatellite loci exhibit higher divergence rates and greater mutability per repeat number.

Conclusions:

  • Microsatellite mutation processes are complex and influenced by repeat characteristics and evolutionary history.
  • Findings necessitate revised models for microsatellite mutation mechanisms.
  • Improved genetic distance measures can be developed based on these insights into microsatellite evolution.