RLO: DNA

• Introduction
• Hybridisation
• Fluorescent In Situ Hybridisation
• The Polymerase Chain Reaction
• DNA Sequencing
• DNA Microarrays

Fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH)

An important technique that relies on hybridisation of complementary nucleic acid sequences is: Fluorescent In Situ Hybridisation or FISH.

This technique makes use of fluorescent probes to detect and locate specific DNA sequences in cells and tissues.

In human genetics, FISH is commonly used to analyse the chromosomal content of cells and to detect mutational changes in chromosomes, for example, a 22q11 deletion associated with DiGeorge syndrome. FISH is so sensitive that it can detect single copies of specific genes in individual cells.