Nonisotopic in situ hybridization and plant genome mapping: the first 10 years

Nonisotopic in situ hybridization (ISH) was introduced in plants in 1985. Since then the technique has been widely used in various areas of plant genome mapping. ISH has become a routine method for physical mapping of repetitive DNA sequences and multicopy gene families. ISH patterns on somatic metaphase chromosomes using tandemly repeated sequences provide excellent physical markers for chromosome identification. Detection of low or single copy sequences were also reported. Genomic in situ hybridization (GISH) was successfully used to analyze the chromosome structure and evolution of allopolyploid species. GISH also provides a powerful technique for monitoring chromatin introgession during interspecific hybridization. A sequential chromosome banding and ISH technique was developed. The sequential technique is very useful for more precise and efficient mapping as well as cytogenetic determination of genomic affinities of individual chromosomes in allopolyploid species. A critical review is made on the present resolution of the ISH technique and the future outlook of ISH research is discussed.