Taq DNA Polymerase-Synthesized Single-Stranded DNA Hybridization Probes and their Application in Northern Blotting and in situ Hybridization

Abstract

So far, radiolabeled DNA probes have usually been generated by nick-translation [7], by random priming with oligonucleotides [3,4] and by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) [9]. Radiolabeled RNA probes are synthesized by in vitro transcription [8]. DNA hybridization probes are easy to handle, but they are double stranded and therefore lack strand specificity if they are synthesized using the methods mentioned above. In vitro-transcribed RNA probes are strand specific, but to handle these probes requires RNase free conditions which makes work more cumbersome.