[5] The major satellite DNA families in humans are called: A repeated pattern can be between 1 base pair (bp) long (a mononucleotide repeat) to several thousand base pairs long,[7] and the total size of a satellite DNA block can be several megabases without interruption.
However, due to a lack of full centromere assemblies, base-level understanding of satellite array variation and evolution has remained weak.
[5] For example, minisatellite DNA is a short region (1-5 kb) of repeating elements with length >9 nucleotides.
[citation needed] Microsatellites are thought to have originated by polymerase slippage during DNA replication.
Four divergent domains consisted of microsatellite repeats, biased in base composition, with purines on one strand and pyrimidines on the other.
The most prevalent repeated sequences in the embedded microsatellite regions were CT:AG, CCT:AGG, CCCT:AGGG, and CGCAC:GTGCG[12][13][7] These repeating sequences were shown to adopt altered structures including triple-stranded DNA, Z-DNA, stem-loop, and other conformations under superhelical stress.
It produced the strongest signal in response to nucleases compared to all other altered structures in experimental observations.
That particular strand-biased divergent domain was subcloned and its altered helical structure was studied in greater detail.