Visualizing EBV Expression Patterns by FISH

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is the method of choice for visualization of viral nucleotide sequences in the infected cells. FISH methodology has been previously used for localization of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA sequences within interphase nuclei or on chromosomes (1 –4 ). The FISH technique has also been applied to visualization of specific viral RNAs within the nuclei of cells latently infected with EBV (5 ,6 ). In situ two-color detection of EBV-specific nuclear RNA allows the study of different viral expression programs at the cellular level (7 ).