Whole genome computational comparative genomics: A fruitful approach for ascertaining Alu insertion polymorphisms.

ABSTRACT: Alu elements are the most active and predominant type of short interspersed elements (SINEs) in the human genome. Recently inserted polymorphic (for presence/absence) Alu elements contribute to genome diversity among different human populations, and they are useful genetic markers for population genetic studies. The objective of this study is to identify polymorphic Alu insertions through an in silico comparative genomics approach and to analyze their distribution pattern throughout the human genome. By computationally comparing the public and Celera sequence assemblies of the human genome, we identified a total of 800 polymorphic Alu elements. We used polymerase chain reaction-based assays to screen a randomly selected set of 16 of these 800 Alu insertion polymorphisms using a human diver

SUBMITTER: Wang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1847407 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature