Southern Blot Analysis

The detection and identification of specific nucleic acid sequences is routine in molecular biology research The principles that govern molecular annealing (or molecular hybridization) are used in many apphcatlons to the study of nucleic acids. Under sultable conditions, two single nucleic-acid chains form a hybrid molecule to an extent that is largely dependent on the degree of their nucleotide complementarity. The formation of such a duplex molecule occurs mainly through hydrogen bonding between guanosine and cytosme bases, and between adenosme and thymidine bases Other base compositions are not complementary because of sterlc reasons and are, therefore, incompatible The composition and distribution of bases differ in distinct nucleic-acid molecules resulting in different hybridization properties, hence, hydrogen bonding (or the molecular hybridization between complementary bases), when coupled to suitable labeling and detection methods, provides a valuable tool to identify identical or related sequences to a reference nucleic-acrd sequence (probe)