Cover image

Researcher in Yellow. A scientist analyzes DNA sequence (colored “strings”), and focuses on a tract of repetitive DNA motifs composed of short repeating units, called microsatellites (red spots). In this issue, a new insertion and deletion caller (MIMcall) takes into consideration the error patterns of different types of microsatellites to provide the mutational landscape of microsatellites in cancer. In addition, a set of highly mutated microsatellites that can be used to detect MSI cancers was identified, as well as factors associated with the mutation rate of microsatellites, which may help to elucidate currently uncharacterized mutations in our genome (represented by the darker region surrounding the central yellow region). (Artwork is oil pastel on paper © Toshihiko Ibe, 2020, ibetoshihiko5{at}gmail.com 334–346.])