| | SNPs: Variations on a Theme |
 | | SNP variation occurs when a single nucleotide, such as an A, replaces one of the other three nucleotide letters—C, G, or T. An example of a SNP is the alteration of the DNA segment AAGGTTA to ATGGTTA, where the second "A" in the first snippet is replaced with a "T". |
 | | SNPs found within a coding sequence are of particular interest to researchers because they are more likely to alter the biological function of a protein. |
 | | Finding single nucleotide changes in the human genome seems like a daunting prospect, but over the last 20 years, biomedical researchers have developed a number of techniques that make it possible to do just that. |
| www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov /About/primer/snps.html (1601 words) |