Distribution of satellite markers in water buffalo genome

Abstract

Genomic markers have wide range of applications and are of several types depending upon the size and the utility. These markers are preferred over several other markers like protein or blood groups. The genomic markers are highly polymorphic, ubiquitously distributed and easier to automate. Microsatellites are short, tandem-repeated DNA sequences which are widely distributed among genomes. Advances in sequence technologies and bioinformatics have completely changed the way the markers are identified. The buffalo whole genome sequence assembly was utilised using bioinformatics tools for extraction of genomic markers, viz. microsatellites, minisatellites and big tandem repeats. Large numbers of microsatellites (3.84 lakh) were identified on all the autosomes and sex chromosme. More than 85% of the microsatellites were dinucleotides while 14% were trinucleotides. The total number of minisatellites and big tandem repeats were 4655 and 752 respectively. The number of minisatellites and big tandem repeats are very small compared to the number of microsatellites.