title: New developments in comet-FISH.
abstract: The comet assay combined with fluorescence in-situ hybridisation (FISH) is a powerful technique for comparative analyses of damage induction and repair in genomes and in specific DNA sequences within single cells. Recent advances in the methodology of comet-FISH will be considered here, with particular attention to the design and generation of fluorescent probes. In general, all the approaches must fulfil a few basic requirements: the probes should be no longer than ~300 nucleotides in length (single or double stranded) to be able to penetrate the gel in which the target genomic DNA is embedded, they should be sequence-specific, and their signal should be detectable and distinct from the background fluorescence and the dye used to stain the DNA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Stanford University, 385 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94395-5020, USA gspivak@stanford.edu.
authors.forename: Graciela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Spivak
mesh_terms: D020552:Comet Assay / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000235:genetics*; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000235:genetics*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D015345:Oligonucleotide Probes