A sequence-tagged site (or STS) is a short (200 to 500 base pair) DNA sequence that has a single occurrence in the

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...

and whose location and base sequence are known.

Usage

STSs can be easily detected by the

polymerase chain reaction The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method widely used to rapidly make millions to billions of copies (complete or partial) of a specific DNA sample, allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it (or a part of it) t ...

(PCR) using specific

primer Primer may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Primer'' (film), a 2004 feature film written and directed by Shane Carruth * ''Primer'' (video), a documentary about the funk band Living Colour Literature * Primer (textbook), a t ...

s. For this reason they are useful for constructing genetic and physical maps from sequence data reported from many different laboratories. They serve as landmarks on the developing physical map of a genome. When STS loci contain genetic polymorphisms (e.g. simple sequence length polymorphisms, SSLPs, single nucleotide polymorphisms), they become valuable genetic markers, i.e. loci which can be used to distinguish individuals. They are used in

shotgun sequencing In genetics, shotgun sequencing is a method used for sequencing random DNA strands. It is named by analogy with the rapidly expanding, quasi-random shot grouping of a shotgun. The Sanger sequencing#Method, chain-termination method of DNA sequencin ...

, specifically to aid

sequence assembly In bioinformatics, sequence assembly refers to aligning and merging fragments from a longer DNA sequence in order to reconstruct the original sequence. This is needed as DNA sequencing technology might not be able to 'read' whole genomes in one ...

. STSs are very helpful for detecting microdeletions in some genes. For example, some STSs can be used in screening by PCR to detect microdeletions in

Azoospermia Azoospermia is the medical condition of a man whose semen contains no sperm. It is associated with male infertility, but many forms are amenable to medical treatment. In humans, azoospermia affects about 1% of the male population and may be seen ...

(AZF)

genes In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

infertile Infertility is the inability of a person, animal or plant to reproduce by natural means. It is usually not the natural state of a healthy adult, except notably among certain eusocial species (mostly haplodiploid insects). It is the normal state ...

men.

References

External links

Sequence-Tagged Sites (STS) description on NCBI

Usage

References

External links

See also