Massive variation of short tandem repeats with functional consequences across strains of Arabidopsis thaliana

Short tandem repeats and genetic variation.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are widely distributed in the human genome and although most SNPs are the result of independent point-mutations, there are exceptions. When studying distances between SNPs, a periodic pattern in the distance between pairs of identical SNPs has been found to be heavily correlated with periodicity in short tandem repeats (STRs). STRs are short DNA segments, ...

Editorial: Could Speciation Across Evolution be Governed by Genetic Switch Codes at Short Tandem Repeats?

Sequencing of natural strains of Arabidopsis thaliana with short reads.

Whole-genome hybridization studies have suggested that the nuclear genomes of accessions (natural strains) of Arabidopsis thaliana can differ by several percent of their sequence. To examine this variation, and as a first step in the 1001 Genomes Project for this species, we produced 15- to 25-fold coverage in Illumina sequencing-by-synthesis (SBS) reads for the reference accession, Col-0, and ...

Mutation of human short tandem repeats.

A total of 20,000 parent-offspring transfers of alleles were examined through the genotyping within 40 CEPH reference families of 28 short tandem repeat polymorphisms (STRPs) located on chromosome 19. Forty-seven initial mutation events were detected in the STRPs using DNA from transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines, but less than half (39%) could be verified using DNA from untransformed cells. ...

Forensic Applications of Y-Short Tandem Repeats.

Y-short tandem repeats (STRs) are located in the nonrecombining part of the Y-chromosome. Its genetic characteristics are helpful to paternity testing. The male lineage can be pursued over several generations. Since an overwhelming majority of rape or sexual assault cases involve male suspects, these markers proved to be very useful with mixed stains. Routine casework performed in our laborator...