Pulsed field gel electrophoresis on single murine hemopoietic colonies

We report a technique which allows for the direct molecular analysis of single whole murine hemopoietic colonies by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Murine bone marrow cells were plated out in semi-solid agarose and gave rise to macroscopic colonies after 11 days in culture. Single colonies were excised from the agarose using a sterile blade and embedded without further manipulation in molten low-melting-temperature agarose. The leucocyte DNA contained within the agarose plug was subjected to restriction enzyme digestion and PFGE. Sufficient high molecular weight DNA is afforded by this method to achieve a hybridization signal with a single copy probe. This method will make PFGE directly applicable to the clonal analysis of chromosomal aberrations in hemopoietic stem and progenitor cells.