Short tandem repeats (STRs) compose approximately 3% of the genome, and mutations at STR loci have been linked to dozens of human diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Friedreich ataxia, Huntington disease, and fragile X syndrome. Improving the understanding of these mutations would increase knowledge of the mutational dynamics of the genome and may uncover additional loci that contribute to disease. To estimate the genome-wide pattern of mutations at STR loci, The investigators analyze blood-derived whole-genome sequencing data for 544 individuals from 29 three-generation CEPH pedigrees. These pedigrees contain both sets of grandparents, the parents, and an average of 9 grandchildren per family. HipSTR was used to identify de novo STR mutations in the 2nd generation of these pedigrees and require transmission to the third generation for validation. Analyzing approximately 1.6 million STR loci, the empirical de novo STR mutation rate was estimated to be 5.24 × 10-5 mutations per locus per generation. Perfect repeats mutate about 2 × more often than imperfect repeats. De novo STRs are significantly enriched in Alu elements. Approximately 30% of new STR mutations occur within Alu elements, which compose only 11% of the genome, but only 10% are found in LINE-1 insertions, which compose 17% of the genome. Phasing these mutations to the parent of origin shows that parental transmission biases vary among families. The authors estimate the average number of de novo genome-wide STR mutations per individual to be approximately 85, which is similar to the average number of observed de novo single nucleotide variants.

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