Few Simple Sequence Repeats in Human Hair

This study investigated the presence of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) in human hair keratin genes and compared their positions with orthologues in chimp, orangutan, macaque, and platypus. It found that while the structural organization of keratin genes was largely conserved, there were differences in the number and lengths of exons and introns in human genes compared to orthologues. Specifically, only one repeat was found in the exon of the Type I keratin gene KRT31, with additional repeats in introns. Some repeats were longer in human genes, while others were shorter compared to orthologues. The study suggested that these SSRs could be useful for monitoring variations in human hair keratin genes due to their hypermutable nature.