Editing Microsatellite (section)

==History==
Although the first microsatellite was characterised in 1984 at the [[University of Leicester]] by Weller, [[Alec Jeffreys|Jeffreys]] and colleagues as a polymorphic GGAT repeat in the human [[myoglobin]] gene, the term "microsatellite" was introduced later, in 1989, by Litt and Luty.<ref name="Richard 2008"/> The name [[Satellite DNA|"satellite" DNA]] refers to the early observation that centrifugation of genomic DNA in a test tube separates a prominent layer of bulk DNA from accompanying "satellite" layers of repetitive DNA.<ref name="Kit1"/> The increasing availability of DNA amplification by PCR at the beginning of the 1990s triggered a large number of studies using the amplification of microsatellites as genetic markers for forensic medicine, for paternity testing, and for positional cloning to find the gene underlying a trait or disease. Prominent early applications include the identifications by microsatellite genotyping of the eight-year-old skeletal remains of a British murder victim ([[Erika Hagelberg|Hagelberg]] et al. 1991), and of the Auschwitz concentration camp doctor [[Josef Mengele]] who escaped to South America following World War II ([[Alec Jeffreys|Jeffreys]] et al. 1992).<ref name="Richard 2008"/>