Sequence differences at orthologous microsatellites inflate estimates of human-chimpanzee differentiation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Microsatellites--contiguous arrays of 2-6 base-pair motifs--have formed the cornerstone of population-genetic studies for over two decades. Their genotype data typically takes the form of PCR fragment lengths obtained using locus-specific primer pairs to amplify the genomic region encompassing the microsatellite. Recently, we reported a dataset of 5,795 human and 84 chimpanzee individuals with genotypes at 246 human-derived autosomal microsatellites as a resource to facilitate interspecies comparisons. A major assumption underlying this dataset is that PCR amplicons at orthologous microsatellites are commensurable between species.

Results

We find this assumption to be frequently incorrect owing to discordance in microsatellite organization and variability, as well

SUBMITTER: Kwong M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4253012 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature