Human minisatellites

Armour JA, Tael I, Thein SL, Fey MF Jeffreys AJ (1989) Analysis of somatic mutations at human minisatellite loci in tumours and cell lines. Genomics 4 328-334. 

Dubrova, Y.E., Nesterov, V.N., Krouchinsky, N.G., et al. (1996) Human minisatellite mutation rate after the Chernobyl accident. Nature 380 683. 

Supply, P., Mazars, E., Lesjean, S., Vincent, V., Gicquel, B., and Locht, C. (2000) Variable human minisatellite-like regions in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome. Mol. Microbiol. 36, 762-771. 

Jeffreys, A.J., V. Wilson, R. Neumann andj. Keyte 1988 Amplification of human minisatellites by the polymerase chain reaction towards DNA fingerprinting of single cells. Nucl Aci Res. l6 10953-10971. 

Fig. 3. Mishybridization anaiysis of a 305-bp human minisatellite region, (a) DNA sequence, (b) Partial results of the mishybridization anaiysis.

The VNTRs or minisatellites of the human genome may be repeated 100 times or more in different persons. Many VNTRs, numbering in the thousands, are well characterized. Restriction fragment analysis will produce different size fragments proportional to the number of repeats in the VNTR. Where the identification of traits has been slowed for lack of a sufficient number of suitable genetic markers, the use of VNTRs should alleviate this constraint.(24)... 

The human kallikrein locus contains a unique minisatellite element that is restricted to chromosomal band 19ql3, and ten clusters of this minisatellite are distributed along the kallikrein locus. These clusters are mainly located... 

Yousef GM, Bharaj BS, Yu H, Poulopoulos J, Diamandis EP. Sequence analysis of the human kallikrein gene locus identifies a unique polymorphic minisatellite element. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2001 285 1321-1329. 

The different alleles at a minisatellite locus are thought to vary in the number of repeats of the consensus sequence, hence the name variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) locus.7 For some human VNTR loci... 

Jeffreys AJ, Wilson V Thein SL (1985a) Hypervariable minisatellite regions in human DNA. Nature 314 67-73. 

Vassart G, Georges M, Monsieur R, Brocas H, Lecarre AS Christophe D (1987) A sequence in M13 phage detects hypervariable minisatellites in human and animal DNA. Science 235 683-684. 

The human genome contains approximately 3 billion base pairs (bp) of DNA. The DNA is folded to fit within the nucleus. It is divided among chromosomes and compactly packed into chromatin by histones and other accessory proteins. Each normal somatic cell contains two copies of 22 different somatic chromosomes and two sex chromosomes (XX or XY). Less than 5% of DNA actually encodes protein and other functional products, such as tRNA, rRNA, miRNA, and other small nuclear RNAs. The majority (>95%) of human DNA consists of non-coding sequences, typically repetitive sequences such as minisatellites, microsatellites, SINEs, and LINEs. Microsatellites are short tandem repeats with each repeat unit of 1 to 13 bp long. Mini-satellites are tandemly repeated DNA sequences with the size of repeat unit of 14 to 500 bp. Microsatellite and minisatellite repeats are also known as short tandem repeats (STRs). Highly repetitive sequences containing thousands of repeated units are also found at the... 

Bennett ST, Lucassen AM, Gough SC, Powell EE, Undlien DE, Pritchard LE, Merriman ME, Kawaguchi Y, Dronsfield MJ, Pociot F (1995) Susceptibility to human type 1 diabetes at IDDM2 is determined by tandem repeat variation at the insulin gene minisatellite locus. Nat Genet, 9 284-292. 

Much of the human genome consists of repetitive DNA. Describe the difference between microsatellite and minisatellite DNA. How is this repetitive DNA useful for identifying individuals by the technique of DNA fingerprinting ... 

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