Multicolor FISH in Human Cytogenetics

This special issue focuses on the recent developments in the exciting and continuously progressing field of human multicolor fluorescence in situ hybridisation (mFISH), highlighting the advantages, applications and possible limitations of this technique. Today, mFISH assays are indispensable for the precise characterization of complex chromosome rearrangements and numerical chromosome aberrations. In a first, more technically oriented part, the main mFISH-techniques (M-FISH, SKY, COBRA) are reviewed and their applications described. In the second part, world experts in the field discuss the multitude of presently available techniques and present their latest findings based on the use of mFISH in tumor cytogenetics, clinical genetics and basic investigations. The most recent studies employing mFISH in the diagnosis of leukemia, lymphoma and solid tumors are included as are preimplantation, pre- and postnatal clinical genetic studies using interphase-mFISH probe sets, FISH-banding and DNA-array techniques. Since structurally rearranged marker chromosomes have implications for hereditary and acquired diseases, chromosomal breakpoints are characterized and evaluated. This unique, comprehensive and up-to-date volume will be a valuable resource for (molecular) cytogeneticists, genetic counsellors, cell biologists, geneticists, reproductive scientists, obstetricians, pediatricians, oncologists and hematologists.