Localization of low abundance DNA sequences in tissue sections by in situ hybridization

Specific DNA sequences were loaclized in the nuclei of paraffin-embedded mouse tissue sections with in situ hybridization using a biotinylated globin probe in conjunction with a streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase detection system. Globin inserts were clearly detected in the tissue sections of transgenic mice containing 1000, 120 or 5 copies of the exogenously introduced beta-globin genes. In addition, specific hybridization signal was also obtained for the endogenous complement of beta-globin genes in the tissue sections of normal mice. These results demonstrate that this hybridization procedure is very sensitive and should be useful for characterizing the distribution of low abundance DNA sequences in cells and tissue sections.