Journal of Heredity Advance Access originally published online on August 31, 2005
Journal of Heredity 2005 96(5):603-606; doi:10.1093/jhered/esi095
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brief Communication |
Localization of Repetitive DNA Sequences on in vitro Xenopus laevis Chromosomes by Primed in situ Labeling (PRINS)
From the University of Illinois, Department of Crop Sciences, 1201 W. Gregory Dr., 320 ERML, Urbana, IL 61801
Address correspondence to A. Lane Rayburn at the address above, or e-mail: arayburn{at}uiuc.edu.
Xenopus laevis is an important reference model organism used in many vertebrate studies. Gene mapping in X. laevis, in comparison to other reference organisms, is in its early stages. Few studies have been conducted to localize DNA sequences on X. laevis chromosomes. Primed in situ labeling (PRINS) is a recently developed innovative tool that has been used to locate specific DNA sequences in various organisms. PRINS has been reported to have increased sensitivity compared to other in situ hybridization techniques. In the present study, PRINS was first used to label the location of telomeres at the ends of in vitro X. laevis chromosomes. The terminal location was as expected from in vivo reports, however, the overall amount seemed to decrease in the in vitro chromosomes. Once the PRINS technique was optimized, this technique was used to determine the chromosomal location of the satellite 1 repetitive sequence, which is an important sequence in X. laevis development. The sequence was observed on the interstitial regions of the majority of the chromosomes similar to the in vivo locations reported. In contrast to the telomeric sequence, the amount of sequence appeared to increase in the satellite 1 sequence. PRINS was found to be useful in the localization of repetitive DNA sequences in the X. laevis genome.