Nucleic acid, as one of the most basic substance of life, is a kind of biological macromolecular compound that polymerized through a large number of nucleotides, of life, which is widely found in all the animal cells and some microorganisms. And the nucleic acid in organisms is always combined with proteins to form important nucleoprotein. However, as for various nucleic acids, their chemical composition and the order of nucleotides are also different. Based on the special chemical composition, nucleic scid can be divided into ribonucleic acid (abbreviated RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (abbreviated DNA). To be general, DNA is the major material foundation to store, copy and transfer genetic information, while RNA has played an important role in the synthetic progress of proteins. The article will discuss about the nucleic acid hybridization technology.
As is known, nucleic acid hybridization technology is usually regarded as a regular technology of molecular biology, mainly for the purpose of detecting some specific sequences of DNA or RNA, namely the target sequences. However, how to make it? Generally speaking, DNA or RNA has to be removed first and then fixed to the cellulose nitrate; complementary single-stranded DNA or RNA probes should be marked with radioactive or non-radioactive label. Thus, during the hybridization, those probes can combine with their complementary target sequences through hydrogen bonds and then wash away those free probes. Finally, specific binding probes can be detected under the autoradiographic or chromogenic reaction.
In fact, two hybridization techniques are used in the nucleic acid hybridization: DNA blot hybridization and RNA blot hybridization. The former one is relatively simpler than the latter one, because based on its own features the latter one can be divided to dot blot hybridization and in situ hybridization. On one hand, dot blot hybridization is to spot a small amount of nucleic acids’ sample on a nitrocellulose filter and then fixed to it after baking with 80℃, finally conducting hybridization using the probes. It is significant in the analysis of DNA and RNA. On the other hand, in situ hybridization can be conducted while maintaining cell pattern, which is always applied to DNA analysis as well. FISH can be used in many realms of biological research such as clinical cytogenetic study. The main advantage of such technology is to diagnose important changes of chromosome during the mid-term of cell division.
In short, nucleic acid, as the most basic genetic substance, has been significant in the synthesis of genetic information and thus play a decisive role in a series of important biological phenomena such as genetic variation.