Repetitive DNA sequence

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Sequences with short repeating units

The two most common terms used for sequences containing short repeating units are simple sequence repeat (SSR) and microsatellite.


Some biochemists use the descriptor polymeric and modifications thereon in order to describe a repeat more precisely, e.g.:

The most abundant SSR tracts are the homopolymer repeats poly(dA).poly(dT) and poly(dG).poly(dC). Long (> 9 bp) tracts of both types are found at higher than expected frequencies in the non-coding regions of eukaryote genomes. This is particularly true for poly(dA).poly(dT) tracts in the AT-rich genomes [4].



Larger repeats may be called oligomeric, referring to the oligomer that is the repeating unit and may likewise use the following terms:

Latin prefixes mono-, di-, tri-, etc. might also be added to the root words mer and nucleotide to describe a simple repeat.

Sequences with large repeating units

Minisatellite (10-100 bp repeating unit) and macrosatelite (> 100 bp repeating unit) are the most common terms for sequences with large repeating units.

Additional nomenclature

One common way to describe a repetitive sequence is to use symbolic notation, e.g. (N)n, where N is a repeating unit, and n is the number of repeats.

Other general descriptors (adjectives) are used, e.g.:

Descriptors are usually used along with the words sequence, repeat, tract or run.

Names for the repeating unit



  1. Toth, G., Gaspari, Z., Jurka, J. 2000. Microsatellites in different eukaryotic genomes: survey and analysis. Genome Res 10(7):967-981. (PMID ??????)
  2. Streisinger, G., Okada, Y., Emrich, J., Newton, J., Tsugita, A., Terzaghi, E., Inouye, M. 1966. Frameshift mutations and the genetic code. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 31():77-84. (PMID ??????)
  3. Kunkel TA, Soni A 1988. Mutagenesis by transient misalignment. J Biol Chem 263(29):14784-14789. (PMID ??????)
  4. Marx, K.A., Hess, S.T., Blake, R.D. 1993. Characteristics of the large (dA).(dT) homopolymer tracts in D. discoideum gene flanking and intron sequences. J Biomol Struct Dyn 11(1):57-66. (PMID ??????)
  5. Struhl, K. 1985. Naturally occurring poly(dA-dT) sequences are upstream promoter elements for constitutive transcription in yeast. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 82(24):8419-8423. (PMID ??????)
  6. Marx, K.A., Hess, S.T., Blake, R.D. 1994. Alignment of (dA).(dT) homopolymer tracts in gene flanking sequences suggests nucleosomal periodicity in D. discoideum DNA. J Biomol Struct Dyn 12(1):235-246. (PMID ??????)
  7. Kenyon, J.R., Craig, I.W. 1999. Analysis of the 5' regulatory region of the human Norrie's disease gene: evidence that a non-translated CT dinucleotide repeat in exon one has a role in controlling expression. Gene 227(2):181-188. (PMID ??????)
  8. Ashley, C.T., Warren, S.T. 1995. Trinucleotide repeat expansion and human disease. Annu Rev Genet 29():703-728. (PMID ??????)
  9. Richards, R.I., Holman, K., Yu, S., Sutherland, G.R. 1993. Fragile X syndrome unstable element, p(CCG)n, and other simple tandem repeat sequences are binding sites for specific nuclear proteins. Hum Mol Genet 2(9):1429-1435. (PMID ??????)
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