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Microsatellites: genomic distribution, putative functions and mutational mechanisms: a review
Author(s) -
Li YouChun,
Korol Abraham B.,
Fahima Tzion,
Beiles Avigdor,
Nevo Eviatar
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-294x.2002.01643.x
Subject(s) - biology , genetics , genome , microsatellite , chromatin , evolutionary biology , replication timing , computational biology , noncoding dna , tandem repeat , gene , allele
Microsatellites, or tandem simple sequence repeats (SSR), are abundant across genomes and show high levels of polymorphism. SSR genetic and evolutionary mechanisms remain controversial. Here we attempt to summarize the available data related to SSR distribution in coding and noncoding regions of genomes and SSR functional importance. Numerous lines of evidence demonstrate that SSR genomic distribution is nonrandom. Random expansions or contractions appear to be selected against for at least part of SSR loci, presumably because of their effect on chromatin organization, regulation of gene activity, recombination, DNA replication, cell cycle, mismatch repair system, etc. This review also discusses the role of two putative mutational mechanisms, replication slippage and recombination, and their interaction in SSR variation.