Figure 2

Mosaic plots describing microsatellites with (A) one, (B) two or (C) three separate STR regions. In the mosaic plots [117, 118], tiles represent categories of microsatellites, and the area of each tile is proportional to the number of microsatellites in the corresponding category. For loci with two or more STR regions, loci are first grouped by the relationships between the repeat units in their STR regions - identical ("A=B"), similar ("A≈B"; 1 bp difference between their sequences), or different by more than 1 bp ("A≠B") - and by the sizes of those repeat units (i.e. di-, tri-, tetra-, or penta-nucleotide, with "mixed" referring to loci whose STR regions are comprised of repeat units of different sizes). Each group of loci is partitioned into distinct categories based on the distance (in nucleotides) separating their STR regions, as described below the plot, and each category is represented in a different color. Black bars represent groups that contain no loci. Filled circles represent those categories within a group that contain no loci. For microsatellites with two STR regions, n represents the number of nucleotides separating the first and second STR regions. For microsatellites with three STR regions, n₁ and n₂ respectively represent the numbers of nucleotides separating the first and second, and the second and third, STR regions. Key: ∧, and; ∨, or; ||A||, length of A.