The use of microsatellite analysis in population biology: background, methods and potential applications

A promising technique currently emerging for population studies is the analysis of microsatellite DNAs. Microsatellite alleles offer several advantages over other types of molecular markers. They are abundant, highly variable, and can be assayed from minute quantities of DNA using PCR. Their major disadvantage is that it is usually necessary to screen genomic libraries to identify and characterize microsatellite loci for each species under investigation. The first goal of this chapter is to summarize background information having implications for population studies. This information comes primarily from human genome literature and is therefore not easily accessible to many population biologists. Secondly, because microsatellite analysis uses molecular approaches that are new to most population biologists, we attempt to provide a rationale and overview of methodology. Finally, we review population studies to date that have used microsatellite analysis and offer our perspective on the potential for future studies.