Microsatellite Marker Analysis

Polymorphic simple sequence repeats (a.k.a. microsatellites) can be rapidly genotyped using automated DNA sequencing instrumentation. The Vanderbilt DNA Sequencing Facility can perform low to high throughput analysis of microsatellite markers in genomic DNA from human, mouse, and zebrafish. Specific markers should be defined by the investigator. Analysis is performed using the Applied Biosystems 3730 platform for rapid turnaround time and highly accurate allele scoring.

Microsatellite markers have many applications in genetics.

This instrumentation can perform multiplex analysis of several markers per capillary.

In a single capillary, markers of multiple base sizes can be electrophoresed together.  Up to four fluorescent dyes can be used in the same PCR reaction, enabling several microsatellites to be studied in a single run.  The figure below illustrates this ability.

Figure 4:  Multiplexed microsatellite analysis on ABI 3730.  The samples are labeled with FAM, VIC, PET, and NED fluorescent dyes.  The samples are aligned using a LIZ size standard (not shown).