Open AccessDevelopment of a yeast‐based assay system for monitoring microsatellite instability
Author(s) -
Larkin Kenneth,
Schweizer Michael
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.1999.tb13663.x
Subject(s) - microsatellite , biology , genetics , microsatellite instability , myotonic dystrophy , dna mismatch repair , context (archaeology) , genome instability , plasmid , genomic dna , genome , dna repair , gene , computational biology , dna , dna damage , allele , paleontology
Abstract Simple sequence repeats (microsatellites) are found in all eukaryotic genomes. Instabilities within these sequences have been associated with several human disorders including Huntington's chorea and myotonic dystrophy. Further studies have identified links between microsatellite instability, faulty mismatch repair and certain human cancers, in particular a form of hereditary colorectal cancer. The assay system described here consists of a congenic set of yeast strains mutated in DNA replication and mismatch repair genes and assay plasmids with which it is possible to measure differences in microsatellite stability in the range of 5–850‐fold. The development of this technology will allow monitoring of environmental and dietary influences on the genomic stability in the context of human disease.