Structural analysis of insulin minisatellite alleles reveals unusually large differences in diversity between Africans and non-Africans.

ABSTRACT: The insulin minisatellite (INS VNTR) associates with susceptibility to a variety of diseases. We have developed a high-resolution system for analyzing variant repeat distributions applicable to all known minisatellite alleles, irrespective of size, which allows lineages of related alleles to be identified. This system has previously revealed extremely low structural diversity in the minisatellite among northern Europeans from the United Kingdom, with all alleles belonging to one of only three highly diverged lineages called "I," "IIIA," and "IIIB." To explore the origins of this remarkably limited lineage diversity, we have characterized an additional 780 alleles from three non-African and three African populations. In total, 22 highly diverged lineages were identified, with structural int

SUBMITTER: Stead JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC378563 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature