A highly polymorphic type of locus containing tandemly repeated sequences having a unit length of 10 to 40 bp. Minisatellite polymorphisms can be assayed by RFLP analysis or by PCR (see Chapter 8). Also referred to as Variable Number of Tandem Repeat (VNTR) loci.

An oligonucleotide, used as a gene probe, which is produced to reflect the repeats of nucleotide base sequences seen in many eukaryotic genes. Minisatellites are typically between 13 -19 nucleotides in length.

A type of simple sequence length polymorphism comprising tandem copies of repeats that are a few tens of nucleotides in length.