Automating Giemsa banding of chromosomes: protocol for and evaluation of the use of a programmable, high-throughput...

The use of prometaphase chromosomes prepared for high-resolution imaging is essential for accurate cytogenetic investigations. The process of Giemsa chromosome banding (G-banding), however, is often time consuming and difficult to standardize owing to differing ambient conditions and inter-operator variability. Consequently, many laboratories currently are introducing automatic metaphase finder and analysis systems to achieve the goals of higher throughput of samples and more consistent chromosome quality. In this context, we investigated the use of automation to improve the G-banding process. We investigated the use of the Shandon Thermo Varistain Gemini automatic stainer to replicate the manual process of G-banding. We compared the current manual method and the automated procedure and found that automation provided equivalent quality, and increased consistency while decreasing the time required and reducing the cost per preparation.