title: Instability of simple sequence DNA in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
abstract: All eukaryotic genomes thus far examined contain simple sequence repeats. A particularly common simple sequence in many organisms (including humans) consists of tracts of alternating GT residues on one strand. Allelic poly(GT) tracts are often of different lengths in different individuals, indicating that they are likely to be unstable. We examined the instability of poly(GT) and poly(G) tracts in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We found that these tracts were dramatically unstable, altering length at a minimal rate of 10(-4) events per division. Most of the changes involved one or two repeat unit additions or deletions, although one alteration involved an interaction with the yeast telomeres.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago, Illinois 60637.
authors.forename: S T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Petes
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002872:Chromosome Deletion; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000378:metabolism*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides / Q000737:chemistry; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides