Relative rates of insertion and deletion mutations in dinucleotide repeats of various lengths in mismatch repair proficient mouse and mismatch repair deficient human cells.

Microsatellites are DNA elements composed of short tandem repeats of 1-5bp. These sequences are particularly prone to frameshift mutation by insertion-deletion loop formation during replication. The mismatch repair system is responsible for correcting these replication errors, and microsatellite mutation rates are significantly elevated in the absence of mismatch repair.