The isolation of rat chromosome probes and their application in cytogenetic tests

This paper reviews the rat chromosome probes which have so far been isolated in our laboratory. The probes can be divided in three groups: a centromere specific probe, chromosome-specific point probes and chromosome-specific paint probes. The centromere probe 18-5 (member of the rat satellite I family) recognizes the centromeres of 16 of the 21 different rat chromosomes and has proved to be very useful for the detection of centromeres in micronuclei. Chromosome-specific point probes are now available for a least 10 different chromosomes. Four of these probes (hybridizing on chromosome 4, 19 (2 different probes) and Y) have proved to be very useful for the detection of aneuploidy. Finally, paint probes which find their application in the detection of structural chromosome aberrations, such as translocations, have been isolated for all rat chromosomes except chromosomes 11 and 13-16.