VNTR and STR

VNTR

                         Capillary gel electrophoresis has been applied to the analysis of the human apolipoprotein B gene (APOB). This gene maps to the short arm of chromosome 2, and a VNTR is located immediately downstream. 

                        The APOB VNTR alleles generally contain 25–52 repeats of a basic 16-bp unit. Larger alleles containing more than 38 repeat units are more common in people who have myocardial infarction and show a significant association with coronary disease. 

                        Capillary gel electrophoresis also has been used to determine the lung cancer risk associated with rare HRAS1 VNTR alleles. 

 STR

                        The number of tandem repeats for a STR is highly variable from individual to individual and can be as many as 15 different alleles in a certain locus. These sequences also show high levels of heterozygosity, which make them very useful as genetic markers.