Alu repeats and human genomic diversity.
During the past 65 million years, Alu elements have propagated to more than one million copies in primate genomes, which has resulted in the generation of a series of Alu subfamilies of different ages. Alu elements affect the genome in several ways, causing insertion mutations, recombination between elements, gene conversion and alterations in gene expression. Alu-insertion polymorphisms are a boon for the study of human population genetics and primate comparative genomics because they are neutral genetic markers of identical descent with known ancestral states.
Batzer
Mark A
MA
Department of Biological Sciences, Biological Computation and Visualization Center, Louisiana State University, 202 Life Sciences Building, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA. mbatzer@lsu.edu
Deininger
Prescott L
PL
D020087:Alu Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005785:Gene Conversion; D014644:Genetic Variation; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D018626:Retroelements / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment
D018626:Retroelements