Microsatellite mapping of insect genomes

Abstract

A microsatellite is a DNA fragment consisting of a tandemly repeated simple sequence, such as a dinucleotide or a trinucleotide (e.g. [GT]n, [GAC]n, etc.). In most eukaryotic organisms, microsatellites are dispersed throughout the genome (Hamada et al., 1982). They are usually highly polymorphic in length due to a variation in the number of repeats within a given microsatellite locus as a result of uneven crossover (as in minisatellite, Jeffrey et al., 1985) or slippage of the DNA polymerase during replication (Tautz, 1989). This polymorphism leads to an increased probability of finding heterozygous individuals and the microsatellite markers can be mapped by recombination since they are generally inherited in a co-dominant, Mendelian fashion (Weissenbach et al., 1992).