From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
The Alu family is a
family of
polymorphisms in the
Human
genome.
There are approximately a
million of these sequences
throughout the whole Human genome.
Alu sequences can easily be
recognized by
enzymes and transported into
other locations in the genome,
which leads to polymorphic
patterns along all population.
Thus, while some people have this
sequence in some
locus, others don't. This
allows a great number of studies,
which have lead to a good
knowledge about this polymorphism.
The sequence known as Alu
PV92, located in
Chromossome 16, can either be
present or absent (although the
majority of people don't have the
sequence), leading to three
different
genotypes:
- Presence, Presence
- Presence, Absence
- Absence, Absence
Linkage Disequilibrium with
Alu can be used to determine the
population migration patterns of
homo sapiens out of
Sub-Saharan Africa as the
world was populated.
