Question

Explain the significance of satellite DNA in DNA fingerprinting technique.

Answer 1

About 3% or so of the human genome has highly repetitive sequences or simple-sequence DNA or simple sequence repeats or satellite DNA or microsatellites which are less than 10 bp long short sequences, repeated in multiples per cell. Satellite DNA, also termed as microsatellite, show relative uniformity within species and great variability between closely related species. Also, different individuals differ in a number of repeats of ssDNA. This DNA polymorphism is used in DNA fingerprinting to create DNA profiles of individuals.