Y-STR DNA

Abraham D. Lavender

Y-STR is a relatively new term for geneticists, becoming common in DNA literature in the second half of the 1990s. The Y stands for the male chromosome, which, as a reproducing cell, does not recombine. STR is an abbreviation for short tandem repeat. Compared to other polymorphisms (different forms of the same trait), STR refers to faster-mutating polymorphisms such as microsatellites. For an unknown reason, short sequences of DNA repeat themselves, with the number of repeats varying. The analysis of diverse polymorphisms with different rates of mutation and different numbers of repeats allows analysis of nonrecombining parts of the Y chromosome. This has helped provide more knowledge of human evolution of males just as mtDNA analysis provides knowledge about ...

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