Comparative analysis of the MSAT-160 repeats in four species of common vole (Microtus, Arvicolidae).

The highly repeated tandemly arranged satellite DNA from the MSAT-160 family has been studied in 4 species of common vole (the Microtus arvalis group). All the monomer units analysed were classified into 4 subfamilies on the basis of similar nucleotide substitutions. The first 3 subfamilies do not show any species specificity since they combine monomers from several of the vole species examined; the fourth subfamily contains monomer units with substitutions specific to M.