Complex and simple sequences in human repeated DNAs.

Highly repeated human DNA sequences were isolated by isopycnic centrifugation, or were eluted from gels after restriction enzyme cleavage. High molecular weight DNA peaks separable from the bulk of the DNA in a variety of gradients were shown to consist of very simple sequences characteristic of simple satellite DNAs; DNA fingerprint studies indicated each of these peaks could consist of tandem repeats of a specific oligonucleotide sequence as low as 10 base pairs (bp) long. All the gradient peaks could be assigned to one of two sequence groups and several "different" buoyant density peaks revealed the same sequence.--Restriction fragment multimers did not share common sequences with the satellite DNAs as judged by hybridization data. They could not be separated by isopycnic centrifugation. Furthermore these highly repeated DNAs were more complex in sequence and more variable than the satellites. Even the smallest (50 bp) fragments by depurination and other direct sequencing methods were shown to be more complex than the high molecular weight satellite peaks.--The idea that subsets of repeated DNAs may be defined by sequence complexity, possibly with discrete or separable functions, is proposed.