Tandem repeat variation in human and great ape populations and its impact on gene expression divergence.

ABSTRACT: Tandem repeats (TRs) are stretches of DNA that are highly variable in length and mutate rapidly. They are thus an important source of genetic variation. This variation is highly informative for population and conservation genetics. It has also been associated with several pathological conditions and with gene expression regulation. However, genome-wide surveys of TR variation in humans and closely related species have been scarce due to technical difficulties derived from short-read technology. Here we explored the genome-wide diversity of TRs in a panel of 83 human and nonhuman great ape genomes, in a total of six different species, and studied their impact on gene expression evolution. We found that population diversity patterns can be efficiently captured with short TRs (repeat unit len

SUBMITTER: Bilgin Sonay T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4617956 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature