E-Book Overview
Yao-Shan Fan and a panel of senior scientists and pioneering researchers describe in step-by-step style the leading FISH techniques and those molecular technologies beyond FISH available for diagnostic services in genetics and oncology. The methods include labeling FISH probes for DNA and RNA targets, fluorescence genotyping, CGH microarray, spectral karyotyping/multicolor FISH, and primed in situ labeling. There are also techniques for multicolor fiber FISH, multi-telomere FISH, prenatal diagnosis using maternal blood, and preimplantation diagnosis. Oncological methods include simultaneous fluorescence immunophenotyping and FISH for leukemia and lymphoma, HER2 amplification in breast cancer, and CAC/PAC for cancer cytogenetics.
E-Book Content
Methods in Molecular Biology TM VOLUME 204 Molecular Cytogenetics Protocols and Applications Edited by Yao-Shan Fan HUMANA PRESS Molecular Cytogenetics 3 1 Molecular Cytogenetics in Medicine An Overview Yao-Shan Fan 1. Introduction The word “chromosome” was introduced over a century ago from the Greek language meaning “colored body.” While cytogenetics refers to the study of chromosomes, the term molecular cytogenetics is used to describe the analysis of genomic alterations using mainly in situ hybridization based technology. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) was initially developed in the late 1980s from radioactive hybridization procedures used for mapping human genes (1–4). Soon, this technology was utilized for the characterization of chromosomal rearrangements and marker chromosomes (5,6), the detection of microdeletions (7), and the prenatal diagnosis of common aneuploidies (8,9) in clinical cytogenetics laboratories. At the same time, numerous DNA probes have been commercialized, further promoting the wide-spread clinical applications of molecular cy