Repeated sequence (DNA)

Repeated sequence DNA or repetitive DNAis any segment of DNA containing duplicated sequences of base pairs. These sequences may be short (say 10 base pairs long) and extended with hundreds of base pairs repeated. The majority of repetitions do not code for proteins but is found among so called junk DNA.

In the study of DNA sequences, one can distinguish two main types of repeated sequence:
 * Tandem repeats:
 * Satellite DNA
 * Minisatellite
 * Microsatellite
 * Interspersed repeats:
 * SINEs (Short Interspersed Nuclear Elements)
 * LINEs (Long Interspersed Nuclear Elements)

In primates, the majority of LINEs are LINE-1 and the majority of SINEs are Alu's.

In prokaryotes, CRISPR are arrays of alternating repeats and spacers.

Other types of repeats
''Note: The following are covered in detail in "Computing for Comparative Microbial Genomics". ''
 * Direct repeats
 * Global direct repeat
 * Local direct simple repeats
 * Local direct repeats
 * Local direct repeats with spacer
 * Inverted repeats
 * Global inverted repeat
 * Local inverted repeat
 * Inverted repeat with spacer
 * Palindromic repeat
 * Mirror and everted repeats