Chromosome Preparation and Banding

Charleen M Moore, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas, USA
Robert G Best, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

Published online: April 2001

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0001444

Reliable techniques have been developed to produce large numbers of mitotic cells and to collect them at metaphase in order to visualize individual chromosomes. After cell culture and spreading of the metaphases onto slides, the chromosomes are stained to produce unique banding patterns or to reveal specialized structures. Molecular techniques have been developed to identify submicroscopic rearrangements and to compare karyotypes of different species.

Keywords: chromosome banding; chromosome spreading; fluorescence in situ hybridization; high resolution banding; metaphase spreads; sister chromatid exchange

Figure 1. G-Banding (a) Normal human male metaphase spread showing 46 human chromosomes. G-Bands were produced by treatment with trypsin followed by staining with Giemsa. (b) The same metaphase arranged in standard karyotype format.
Figure 2. Molecular cytogenetic probes. (a) Normal human metaphase spread showing hybridization of the centromeric region of chromosomes 7 (green) and 8 (red) using -satellite probes. Chromosomes counterstained in blue using DAPI. (b) Human male metaphase spread with deletion of the elastin (ELN) locus at the Williams syndrome critical region near the centromere on one homologue of chromosome 7. Cosmid probe for the ELN locus and a control probe are visible on the normal homologue (right); however, only the control probe can be seen on the deleted homologue (left). (c) Normal human metaphase spread with whole-chromosome paint probe for chromosome pair number 15 in red. (d) Cross-species colour banding (RX-FISH®) on normal human male chromosomes arranged in standard karyotype format.
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 Further Reading
    book Barch MJ, Knutsen T and Spurbeck JL (eds) (1997) The AGT Cytogenetics Laboratory Manual, 3rd edn. Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven.
    book Rooney DE and Czepulkowski BH (eds) (1992) Human Cytogenetics: A Practical Approach, vol. I, Constitutional Analysis, 2nd edn. Oxford: IRL Press.
    book Rooney DE and Czepulkowski BH (eds) (1994) Human Cytogenetics. Essential Data. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
    book Sandberg A (1990) The Chromosomes in Human Cancer and Leukemia, 2nd edn. New York: Elsevier.
    book Therman E and Susman M (1993) Human Chromosomes: Structure, Behavior, and Effects, 3rd edn. New York: Springer-Verlag.
    book Verma RS and Babu A (1995) Human Chromosomes: Principles and Techniques, 2nd edn. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Related Sub-Topics:

Basic Cell Biology, Protein, RNA and DNA | Cell Cycle | Chromosome Segregation | Techniques in Cell Biology | Techniques and Tools in Clinical Genetics | Chromosomes and Chromatin Modifications | DNA Structure and Function | Techniques and Tools in Molecular Biology
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Article Title: Chromosome Preparation and Banding
 
How to Cite close
Moore, Charleen M, and Best, Robert G(Apr 2001) Chromosome Preparation and Banding. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0001444]