Low-pass single-chromosome sequencing of human small supernumerary marker chromosomes (sSMCs) and Apodemus B chromosomes

Primate-specific segmental duplications are considered important in human disease and evolution. The inability to distinguish between allelic and duplication sequence overlap has hampered their characterization as well as assembly and annotation of our genome. We developed a method whereby each public sequence is analyzed at the clone level for overrepresentation within a whole-genome shotgun sequence. This test has the ability to detect duplications larger than 15 kilobases irrespective of copy number, location, or high sequence similarity. We mapped 169 large regions flanked by highly similar duplications. Twenty-four of these hot spots of genomic instability have been associated with genetic disease. Our analysis indicates a highly nonrandom chromosomal and genic distribution of recent segmental duplications, with a likely role in expanding protein diversity.

Repetitive DNA makes up large portions of plant and animal nuclear genomes, yet it remains the least-characterized genome component in most species studied so far. Although the recent availability of high-throughput sequencing data provides necessary resources for in-depth investigation of genomic repeats, its utility is hampered by the lack of specialized bioinformatics tools and appropriate computational resources that would enable large-scale repeat analysis to be run by biologically oriented researchers. Here we present RepeatExplorer, a collection of software tools for characterization of repetitive elements, which is accessible via web interface. A key component of the server is the computational pipeline using a graph-based sequence clustering algorithm to facilitate de novo repeat identification without the need for reference databases of known elements. Because the algorithm uses short sequences randomly sampled from the genome as input, it is ideal for analyzing next-generation sequence reads. Additional tools are provided to aid in classification of identified repeats, investigate phylogenetic relationships of retroelements and perform comparative analysis of repeat composition between multiple species. The server allows to analyze several million sequence reads, which typically results in identification of most high and medium copy repeats in higher plant genomes.

A version of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), termed degenerate oligonucleotide-primed PCR (DOP-PCR), which employs oligonucleotides of partially degenerate sequence, has been developed for genome mapping studies. This degeneracy, together with a PCR protocol utilizing a low initial annealing temperature, ensures priming from multiple (e.g., approximately 10(6) in human) evenly dispersed sites within a given genome. Furthermore, as efficient amplification is achieved from the genomes of all species tested using the same primer, the method appears to be species-independent. Thus, for the general amplification of target DNA, DOP-PCR has advantages over interspersed repetitive sequence PCR (IRS-PCR), which relies on the appropriate positioning of species-specific repeat elements. In conjunction with chromosome flow sorting, DOP-PCR has been applied to the characterization of abnormal chromosomes and also to the cloning of new markers for specific chromosome regions. DOP-PCR therefore represents a rapid, efficient, and species-independent technique for general DNA amplification.