Painting of Arabidopsis Chromosomes with Chromosome-Specific BAC Clones

Curr Protoc Plant Biol. 2016 Mar;1(2):359-371. doi: 10.1002/cppb.20022.

Abstract

Chromosome painting (CP) refers to fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) of chromosome-specific DNA probes to identify large chromosome regions, chromosome arms, and whole chromosomes. For CP and CCP (comparative chromosome painting) in plants, most often, contigs of chromosome-specific bacterial artificial chromosomes (BAC) from the species of origin or a related species are used as painting probes. CP enables visualization and tracing of particular chromosome regions and/or chromosomes throughout all mitotic and meiotic stages as well as the corresponding interphase chromosome territories. CCP enables identification of large-scale homeologous chromosome regions and chromosomes shared among two or more species. Here, a step-by-step protocol for carrying out CP in Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) and CCP in other crucifer taxa based on the use of Arabidopsis chromosome-specific BAC contigs is described. © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Keywords: Arabidopsis; BAC FISH; Brassicaceae; chromosome painting; fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH); nick translation; pachytene chromosomes.