SETS OF SHORT TANDEM REPEAT POLYMORPHISMS FOR EFFICIENT LINKAGE SCREENING OF THE HUMAN GENOME

For the purpose of initial screening of the human genome in linkage ma pping, two overlapping sets of high quality short tandem repeat polymo rphisms (STRPs) which span the autosomes have been assembled. The high er density set contains a total of 363 markers with an average heteroz ygosity of 79% and an average sex-equal genetic distance between marke rs of 10.5 cM. The lower density set, which is a subset of the other, contains 156 markers with an average heterozygosity of 80% and an aver age spacing of 26.5 cM. Tri- and tetranucleotide STRPs comprised 47 an d 63%, respectively, of the markers within the higher and lower densit y sets. Markers within the screening sets were selected to have maximu m quality, where quality was defined as a blend of high informativenes s, strong amplification under standard PCR conditions, low amplificati on background, and ease in scoring. The screening sets along with comb inations of STRPs which can be amplified and electrophoresed simultane ously are available electronically through anonymous ftp.