Molecular Analysis of Chromosome Aberrations: In Situ Hybridization

In situ hybridization provides a means of analyzing chromosomal aberrations in a very direct way. Nucleic acid probes are hybridized to chromosomal preparations, and the site of specific hybridization is detectable by various procedures. Although in the 1970s and 1980s isotopic detection was the preferred technique, new developments in the protocols of nonisotopic in situ hybridization resulted in an increasing popularity of this procedure since the late 1980s. This development is owing to the distinct advantages of nonradioactive in situ hybridization techniques, such as increased speed of the procedure, higher signal resolution, and most of all the potential to combine several nonisotopic techniques to delineate a number of chromosomal target regions simultaneously. These developments have been discussed in more detail elsewhere (see , e.g., refs. 1 –3 ).