g1
GGACCTGGAATATGGCGAGAA
AACTGAA
pl
AATCACGGAAAATGA
GAAATACACACTTTA
CI2
GGACGTGAAATATGGCGAGAGA
AACTGAA
92
AAAGGTGGAAAATTTA
GAAATGTCCACTGTA
O3 GGACGTGGAATATGGCAAGAA
AACTGAA
O3
AATCATGGAAAATGA
GAAACATCCACTTGA
A4 CGACTTGAAAAATGACGAAAT
CACTAAA
F4
AAACGTGAAAAATGA
GAAATGCACACTGAA
cont"n.ty.tt,#ffi$ffiffi
ffiw.'..
:
ta.
. . . .
Ancestral?
AAACcTGAAAAATGA GAAATGCACACTGAA
a:i:iiii+
ii.iil The atignment of eighth-repeats
shows
that each
quarter-repeat
consists of an
s
ha[f and a
B
hatf. The consensus
sequence
gives
the
most common
base at each
position.
The
"ancestra["
sequence shows a
sequence
very closety
retated
to
the consensus sequence,
which coutd
have
been the
predecessor
to the cx
and
B
units.
(The
satettite sequence
is con-
tinuous, so that
for
the
purposes
of deducing
the consensus
sequence
we
can treat
it as a cjr-
cutar
permutation,
as
indicated by
joining
the
last GAA triptet
to the
first
6 bp.)
the 234 bp
repeating unit. Although this unit
accounts for the majority of the
satellite, vari-
ants of it also are
present.
Some of
them are
scattered at
random throughout the satellite;
others are clustered.
The existence of variants
is implied by our
description of the starting material
for the
sequence analysis as the
"monomeric"
frag-
ment. When the satellite is digested by
an
enzyme that
has
one
cleavage site in the
234
bp sequence, it also
generates
dimers,
trimers,
and
tetramers relative to the 2)4bp length.
fhey arise when a repeating unit
has lost the
enzyme cleavage site as the result of
mutation.
The monomeric
234
bp unit
is
generated
when two adjacent repeats each
have
the
recog-
nition
site.
A
dimer occurs
when one unit has
Iost the site, a trimer is
generated
when
two
adiacent units have lost the site, and so on.
With
some restriction enzymes, most of the satellite
is cleaved into a member of this repeating series,
as
shown
in the example
of
*ii,t::+*,
*.::ij;.
The
declining number of dimers, trimers, and so
forth shows that there is a random distribution
of
the repeats in which
the enzyme's
recogni-
tion
site
has
been eliminated by
mutation.
Other
restriction
enzymes show a different
type of behavior with the satellite DNA.
They
continue
to
generate
the
same series of bands.
Ihey
cleave,
however,
only a small
proportion
of the DNA, say 5oh-looh. This implies that a
certain reqion of the satellite contains a con-
CHAPTER
6
Ctusters and Repeats
centration
of the
repeating units with this
par-
ticular
restriction site. Presumably the
series of
repeats in this domain
all are derived
from an
ancestral
variant that
possessed
this recogni-
tion site
(although
in the usual way, some
mem-
bers since have
lost it by mutation).
A satellite DNA
suffers unequal recombi-
nation. This has additional
consequences when
there
is internal repetition
in
the
repeating unit.
Let us
return to our cluster consisting of
"ab"
repeats. Suppose that
the
"a"
and
"b"
compo-
nents of the
repeating unit are themselves suf-
ficiently well related to
pair.
Then
the
two
clusters can
align in half-register, with the
"
a"
sequence
of one aligned with
the
"b"
sequence
of the other.
How frequently this occurs will
depend
on the closeness of
the relationship
between the two
halves of the repeating unit.
In mouse satellite
DNA, reassociation between
the denatured satellite
DNA strands invitro com-
monly occurs
in
the
half-register.
When a recombination event occurs out of
register, it changes the
length
of the
repeating
units
that are involved in the reaction:
ffisl*.ffiffi,$i*ffiffii*hg.i$aba
ba babababababy
'{'
xa ba ba ba ba bababiili*,F.i{,Hffitrtftii$iilHi*tifi$i#iii
J
xababababababababaababababababababv
t'
xababababa ba ba ba bbabababababababv
722