Practice question

Tandem repeat classes differ in size, composition and genomic location. Microsatellites, also called SSR or STR, comprise 1-6 bp motifs often highly AT-rich, particularly TA dinucleotides, creating exceptionally polymorphic short loci dispersed throughout euchromatin. Their small size and abundance facilitate robust PCR amplification even from degraded DNA templates. Minisatellites possess 10-100 bp units, macrosatellites exceed 100 bp, often GC-rich and associated with heterochromatin. SNPs are single-base changes, not repeats. AT-rich small repeat nature characterizes microsatellites, explaining high slippage-mediated variability and broad utility.