Cycling-PRINS. A method to improve the accuracy of telomeric sequence detection in mammalian chromosomes

The presence of (TTAGGG)n telomeric sequence was investigated in a Chinese hamster tumor-derived cell line, using single primed in situ labelling (single-PRINS) and multiple cycles of amplification (cycling-PRINS). The telomeric sequence hybridized the centromere of most chromosomes, using both techniques. However, signals visible at the telomeric regions of some chromosomes and an enhancement of the frequency signals at the centromere of chromosome 1 were obtained using cycling-PRINS. These results indicate that cycling-PRINS represents a promising improvement for detection of telomeric sequence in cell lines where the conventional methods failed to demonstrate their presence.