The rise, fall and renaissance of microsatellites in eukaryotic genomes
Microsatellites are among the most versatile of genetic markers, being used in an impressive number of biological applications. However, the evolutionary dynamics of these markers remain a source of contention. Almost 20 years after the discovery of these ubiquitous simple sequences, new genomic dat...
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Published in | BioEssays Vol. 28; no. 10; pp. 1040 - 1050 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Hoboken
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
01.10.2006
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Microsatellites are among the most versatile of genetic markers, being used in an impressive number of biological applications. However, the evolutionary dynamics of these markers remain a source of contention. Almost 20 years after the discovery of these ubiquitous simple sequences, new genomic data are clarifying our understanding of the structure, distribution and variability of microsatellites in genomes, especially for the eukaryotes. While these new data provide a great deal of descriptive information about the nature and abundance of microsatellite sequences within eukaryotic genomes, there have been few attempts to synthesise this information to develop a global concept of evolution. This review provides an up‐to‐date account of the mutational processes, biases and constraints believed to be involved in the evolution of microsatellites, particularly with respect to the creation and degeneration of microsatellites, which we assert may be broadly viewed as a life cycle. In addition, we identify areas of contention that require further research and propose some possible directions for future investigation. BioEssays 28: 1040–1050, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. |
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Bibliography: | istex:FCD74614F5FEA22B37987800EFA2973CA1D8A97F ark:/67375/WNG-DN53381D-R Royal Society of New Zealand - No. Marsden Fund UOC202 ArticleID:BIES20470 ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 content type line 23 ObjectType-Review-1 |
ISSN: | 0265-9247 1521-1878 |
DOI: | 10.1002/bies.20470 |