Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Karyotyping

Karyotyping

Polytene Chromosomes

Polytene Chromosomes

Polytene chromosomes are giant interphase chromosomes with several DNA strands placed side by side. They were discovered in the year 1881 by Balbiani in salivary glands, intestine, muscles, malpighian tubules, and hypoderm of larvae Chironomus plumosus. Hence, these are also called "Salivary gland chromosomes." These are found in insects of the order Diptera and Collembola; in certain organs of mammals; and synergids, antipodes of flowering plants. Polytene chromosomes are also...

Euchromatin

Euchromatin

The extent of chromatin compaction can be studied by staining chromatin using specific DNA binding dyes. Under the microscope, the dense-compacted regions take up more dye, appearing darker, while the less-compact areas take up less dye and appear lighter. Based on the compaction level, chromatins are classified into two primary forms – euchromatin and heterochromatin.
Euchromatin is the less dense region of the chromatin and stains lighter. Euchromatin contains histone H3 extensively...

Lampbrush Chromosomes

Lampbrush Chromosomes

In 1882, Flemming observed lampbrush chromosomes (LBC) in salamander eggs. Later in 1892, Rückert observed LBCs in shark egg cells and coined the term "lampbrush chromosomes" because they looked like brushes used to clean kerosene lamps.
LBCs are made up of two pairs of conjugating homologous chromatids. Each chromatid consists of alternatively positioned regions of condensed-inactive chromatin and loosely placed-active side loops, which can be contracted and extended. The loops...

Position-effect Variegation

Position-effect Variegation

In 1928, a German botanist Emil Heitz observed the moss nuclei with a DNA binding dye. He observed that while some chromatin regions decondense and spread out in the interphase nucleus, others do not. He termed them euchromatin and heterochromatin, respectively. He proposed that the heterochromatin regions reflect a functionally inactive state of the genome. It was later confirmed that heterochromatin is transcriptionally repressed, and euchromatin is transcriptionally active chromatin.

Heterochromatin

Heterochromatin

The extent of chromatin compaction can be studied by staining chromatin using specific DNA binding dyes. Under the microscope, the dense-compacted regions that take up more dye are called heterochromatin. Heterochromatin is further classified into two forms – constitutive heterochromatin and facultative heterochromatin.
Constitutive heterochromatin: It is a highly compact region of chromatin that is mostly concentrated in the centromere and telomere. Unlike euchromatin, the amino acid at...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Conjugated Polymer Semiconductors Enabled Multifunctional Interfacial Engineering for High-Performance Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells.

Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)·2026

Same author

Folate deficiency correlates with severity of primary biliary cholangitis via modulating key regulatory genes.

Frontiers in nutrition·2026

Same author

Enhancing Efficiency and Stability of Perovskite Solar Cells Through Electron-Rich Covalent Organic Frameworks Radicals.

Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)·2026

Same author

Artificial MetalloDNAzymes with High-Density, Near-Atomic Precision Organization of Metal Cofactors for Enhanced Bioorthogonal Catalysis.

Journal of the American Chemical Society·2026

Same author

Semi-URF: Progressive Uncertainty-Aware Region Filtering and Fusion for Semi-Supervised Medical Image Segmentation.

IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics·2026

Same author

Rationally Designed Self-Assembled Monolayer for Dual-Site Passivation Enables Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells.

Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)·2026

Same journal

Tracking Synthetic Adhesins on Bacterial Surfaces with Immunofluorescence Microscopy.

Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)·2026

Same journal

Post-Selection Methods for Analyzing mRNA Display Selections and Optimization of Hits.

Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)·2026

Same journal

High-Performance Computing in Tandem Mass Spectrometry (MS/MS) Peptide Identification.

Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)·2026

Same journal

Engineering and Adapting Disulfide-Containing Proteins to Enable Intracellular Functionality.

Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)·2026

Same journal

AI-Driven Protein Research: From Prediction to Design.

Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)·2026

Same journal

Methods for the In Vitro Selection of Protein and Peptide Libraries Using mRNA Display.

Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 11, 2026

Chromosome Preparation From Cultured Cells

Chromosome Preparation From Cultured Cells

Published on: January 28, 2014

Chromosome Bandings.

Huifang Huang¹, Jiadi Chen²

¹Central Laboratory, Fujian Medical University Affiliated Union Hospital, 29 Xinquan Road, Fuzhou, 350001, P. R. China. huanghuif@126.com.

Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.)

|December 3, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Chromosome banding techniques like Giemsa (G), reverse (R), and centromere (C) are crucial for identifying chromosome abnormalities in research and clinical settings. Each method uses specific staining and denaturation processes for accurate chromosome analysis.

Keywords:

C-banding Chromosome banding G-banding Karyotyping R-banding

More Related Videos

Chromosomics: Detection of Numerical and Structural Alterations in All 24 Human Chromosomes Simultaneously Using a Novel OctoChrome FISH Assay

Chromosomics: Detection of Numerical and Structural Alterations in All 24 Human Chromosomes Simultaneously Using a Novel OctoChrome FISH Assay

Published on: February 6, 2012

Rapid Analysis of Chromosome Aberrations in Mouse B Lymphocytes by PNA-FISH

Rapid Analysis of Chromosome Aberrations in Mouse B Lymphocytes by PNA-FISH

Published on: August 19, 2014

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Mar 11, 2026

Chromosome Preparation From Cultured Cells

Chromosome Preparation From Cultured Cells

Published on: January 28, 2014

Chromosomics: Detection of Numerical and Structural Alterations in All 24 Human Chromosomes Simultaneously Using a Novel OctoChrome FISH Assay

Chromosomics: Detection of Numerical and Structural Alterations in All 24 Human Chromosomes Simultaneously Using a Novel OctoChrome FISH Assay

Published on: February 6, 2012

Rapid Analysis of Chromosome Aberrations in Mouse B Lymphocytes by PNA-FISH

Rapid Analysis of Chromosome Aberrations in Mouse B Lymphocytes by PNA-FISH

Published on: August 19, 2014

Area of Science:

Cytogenetics
Molecular Biology
Genetics

Background:

Chromosome banding is a fundamental cytogenetic technique for karyotyping.
It is essential for identifying chromosomal abnormalities in clinical diagnostics and research.
Common methods include Giemsa (G), reverse (R), and centromere (C) banding.

Purpose of the Study:

To outline the principles and applications of common chromosome banding techniques.
To highlight the differences in methodology for G-, R-, and C-banding.
To emphasize the importance of selecting appropriate banding techniques for chromosome identification.

Main Methods:

Giemsa (G)-banding involves trypsin treatment followed by Giemsa staining.
Reverse (R)-banding requires hot acidic saline denaturation before Giemsa staining.
Centromere (C)-banding uses alkaline denaturation to identify heterochromatin.

Main Results:

Different banding patterns are generated by distinct chemical treatments and staining protocols.
G-banding visualizes euchromatic regions, R-banding visualizes gene-rich regions, and C-banding highlights centromeric heterochromatin.
The choice of banding technique influences the visibility of specific chromosomal structures.

Conclusions:

Chromosome banding techniques are vital tools in cytogenetics.
Understanding the distinct methodologies of G-, R-, and C-banding is key to their effective application.
Appropriate selection of banding techniques ensures accurate chromosome analysis and identification.