S. Muller et al., A NOVEL SOURCE OF HIGHLY SPECIFIC CHROMOSOME PAINTING PROBES FOR HUMAN KARYOTYPE ANALYSIS DERIVED FROM PRIMATE HOMOLOGS, Human genetics, 101(2), 1997, pp. 149-153
We have established a series of highly specific painting probes for hu
man acrocentric chromosomes, These chromosomes are involved in the for
mation of the nucleolar organizer region (NOR) and show DNA sequence h
omologies within their pericentric heterochromatin. To date, these chr
omosomes have shown considerable cross hybridization in chromosome pai
nting experiments. Our probe set has been established from primate hom
ologues that are not involved in the NOR in that particular species or
from species in which highly repetitive sequences have undergone rapi
d sequence divergence. The new painting probes should be of particular
value for automated microscopy, for which highly specific signals are
required as they are recorded at low magnification, e.g. when scoring
chromosome 21 domains in interphase nuclei.