title: Genome microsatellite diversity within the Apicomplexa phylum.
abstract: The Apicomplexa phylum groups include unicellular and obligate intracellular protozoan parasites with an apical complex used for attachment and invasion to host cells. In this study, we analyze single sequence repeats (SSRs) in the whole genome of 20 apicomplexan organisms that represent four different lineages within the phylum. Only perfect SSRs with at least 12 nucleotides and composed of 2-6 mers were included. To better understand the association of SSR types with the genomic regions, the SSRs were classified accordingly with the genomic location into exon, intron and intergenic categories. Our results showed heterogeneous SSRs density within the studied genomes. However, the most frequent SSRs types were di- and tri-nucleotide repeats. The former was associated with intergenic regions, while the latter was associated with exon regions.
authors: Grupo de Parasitología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia.|Centro Nacional de Secuenciación Genómica, Sede de Investigación Universitaria, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia.
authors: Juan Pablo
authors: JP
authors: Isaza
authors: Grupo de Parasitología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia. jfernando.alzate@udea.edu.co.|Centro Nacional de Secuenciación Genómica, Sede de Investigación Universitaria, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia. jfernando.alzate@udea.edu.co.
authors: Juan Fernando
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2578-4609
authors: JF
authors: Alzate
mesh_terms: D016782:Apicomplexa / Q000235:genetics*; D005091:Exons; D014644:Genetic Variation; D059646:Genome Size; D018503:Genome, Protozoan; D007438:Introns; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats
keywords: Apicomplexa; Comparative genomics; Microsatellites; Parasite genomics; Single sequence repeats