title: Dinucleotide repeats in the Drosophila and human genomes have complex, length-dependent mutation processes.
abstract: We use methods of maximum likelihood estimation to fit several microsatellite mutation models to the observed length distribution of dinucletoide repeats in the Drosophila and human genomes. All simple models are rejected by this procedure. Two new models, one with quadratic and another with piecewise linear slippage rates, have the best fits and agree with recent experimental studies by predicting that long microsatellites have a bias toward contractions.
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California, USA. rtd1@cornell.edu
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Calabrese
authors.forename: Rick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Durrett
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018900:Dinucleotide Repeats / Q000235:genetics*; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*