Title

Alu repeats and human genomic diversity

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2002

Abstract

During the past 65 million years, Alu elements have propagated to more than one million copies in primate genomes, which has resulted in the generation of a series of Alu subfamilies of different ages. Alu elements affect the genome in several ways, causing insertion mutations, recombination between elements, gene conversion and alterations in gene expression. Alu-insertion polymorphisms are a boon for the study of human population genetics and primate comparative genomics because they are neutral genetic markers of identical descent with known ancestral states.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Nature reviews. Genetics

First Page

370

Last Page

9

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