串联重复

串联重复（）是指DNA中的一个或多个核苷酸前后相连接的重复。

一个例子：
 ATTCGATTCGATTCG

其中的ATTCG在这里重复了三次。

几种蛋白质结构域也是由串联重复的氨基酸序列产生，如。但很少有串联重复出现在体内的蛋白质中，多数为人工设计的蛋白。

术语
当重复核苷酸数在10到60之间时，被称为小衛星，低于10则被称为短串联重复或微衛星。

當重复核苷酸只有两个的時候，称为“双核苷酸重复”（如：ACACACAC…）。的常为这种类型。

当重复核苷酸有三个时，称为“三核苷酸重复”（如：CAGCAGCAGCAG…）在这一区域的异常常导致。

当重复单元的拷贝数在人群中存在不同时。被称为可变数目串联重复序列（VNTR）。

应用
串联重复可以作为确定个体的遗传特征的一种描述模式，在确定亲子关系中非常有用。短串联重复序列可用于一些。

DNA is examined from microsatellites within the chromosomal DNA.  Minisatellite is another way of saying special regions of the loci.  Polymerase chain reaction (or PCR) is performed on the minisatellite areas.  The PCR must be performed on each organism being tested.  The amplified material is then run through electrophoresis.  By checking the percentage of bands that match, parentage is determined.

Polymorphic tandem repeats (alias VNTRs) are also present in microorganisms and can be used to trace the origin of an outbreak. The corresponding assay in which a collection of VNTRs is typed to characterize a strain is most often called MLVA (Multiple Loci VNTR Analysis).

In the field of Computer Science, tandem repeats in strings (e.g., DNA sequences) can be efficiently detected using suffix trees or suffix arrays.

Studies in 2004 linked the unusual genetic plasticity of dogs to mutations in tandem repeats.

参考文献

外部链接 
例子：
 VNTRs - info and animated example
数据库：
   The Microorganisms Tandem Repeats Database
 Short Tandem Repeats Database
搜索工具：
 Tandem Repeats Finder 
 Mreps
 STAR
 TRED - Tandem Repeats over the Edit Distance
 TandemSWAN 
   Microsatellite repeats finder
 JSTRING - Java Search for Tandem Repeats in genomes
 Phobos - a tandem repeat search tool for perfect and imperfect repeats - the maximum pattern size depends only on computational power
 UGENE  - an ultra fast and memory efficient open-source tandem repeats finder implementation.

重複DNA序列