Editing Microsatellite (section)

=== Forensic and medical fingerprinting ===
Microsatellite analysis became popular in the field of [[forensics]] in the 1990s.<ref name=":0" /> It is used for the [[genetic fingerprinting]] of individuals where it permits forensic identification (typically matching a crime stain to a victim or perpetrator). It is also used to follow up [[bone marrow transplant]] patients.<ref name="pmid11669214">{{cite journal | vauthors = Antin JH, Childs R, Filipovich AH, Giralt S, Mackinnon S, Spitzer T, Weisdorf D | title = Establishment of complete and mixed donor chimerism after allogeneic lymphohematopoietic transplantation: recommendations from a workshop at the 2001 Tandem Meetings of the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation | journal = Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation | volume = 7 | issue = 9 | pages = 473–85 | year = 2001 | pmid = 11669214 | doi = 10.1053/bbmt.2001.v7.pm11669214 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

The microsatellites in use today for forensic analysis are all tetra- or penta-nucleotide repeats, as these give a high degree of error-free data while being short enough to survive degradation in non-ideal conditions.  Even shorter repeat sequences would tend to suffer from artifacts such as PCR stutter and preferential amplification, while longer repeat sequences would suffer more highly from environmental degradation and would amplify less well by [[polymerase chain reaction|PCR]].<ref name="interpol">{{cite web |title=DNA Profiling  | vauthors = Carracedo A |url= http://www.interpol.int/public/Forensic/dna/conference/DNAProfiling01.asp#note41 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20010927081712/http://www.interpol.int/public/forensic/dna/conference/dnaprofiling01.asp |archive-date=2001-09-27 |access-date=2010-09-20}}</ref> Another forensic consideration is that the person's [[medical privacy]] must be respected, so that forensic STRs are chosen which are non-coding, do not influence gene regulation, and are not usually trinucleotide STRs which could be involved in [[Trinucleotide repeat disorder|triplet expansion diseases]] such as [[Huntington's disease]]. Forensic STR profiles are stored in DNA databanks such as the [[UK National DNA Database]] (NDNAD), the American [[CODIS]] or the Australian NCIDD.