title: Heterozygosities and allelic frequencies of a set of microsatellite markers used for genome-wide scans in a Chinese population.
abstract: Microsatellite (short tandem repeat) markers are useful tools for genetic linkage analysis because of their high frequency of occurrence in eukaryotic genomes, ease of typing, and high polymorphism content. To establish a panel of microsatellite markers useful for genome-wide screens in the Chinese population, we determined the heterozygosities and allelic frequencies of a widely used set of 285 markers in 208 individuals of Han Chinese descent. Although the median heterozygosity level in our Chinese population was 0.72, only 63.6% of these markers have a heterozygosity of at least 0.7, compared with 90.8% in the original Caucasian sample. The significant difference in heterozygosity and allelic frequencies between populations suggests that markers should be optimally selected for each study population to maximize information content and power.
authors.affiliation: Defence Medical Research Institute, Defence Science and Technology Agency Clinical Research Centre, 10 Medical Drive, Singapore 117597, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Ene-choo
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Huimin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yong
authors.forename: Selen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yap
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005819:Genetic Markers; D015894:Genome, Human; D006579:Heterozygote; D006801:Humans; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers