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REVIEW ARTICLE. MICROSATELLITES AND PCR GENOMIC ANALYSIS
Author(s) -
KORETH JOHN,
O'LEARY JOHN J.,
O'D. McGEE JAMES
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
the journal of pathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.964
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1096-9896
pISSN - 0022-3417
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9896(199603)178:3<239::aid-path506>3.0.co;2-5
Subject(s) - microsatellite , computational biology , biology , genetics , evolutionary biology , gene , allele
Abstract Microsatellites form a significant proportion of the growing family of repetitive DNA sequences, widely dispersed in the human genome. Due to their ubiquity, PCR (polymerase chain reaction) typability, Mendelian co‐dominant inheritance, and extreme polymorphism, microsatellites have assumed an increasingly important role as markers in the genome. Apart from their obvious applications in genome mapping and positional cloning, these markers have been applied in fields as disparate as tumour biology, personal identification, population genetic analysis, and the construction of human evolutionary trees. Microsatellites are associated with human disease, not only as markers of risk but also directly in disease aetiopathogenesis, providing new insights into non‐Mendelian inheritance; the replication, repair, and mutation of eukaryotic DNA; the regulation of gene transcription; and protein–protein interactions. These insights have resulted in novel paradigms for oncogenesis and neurological disease.