In assembling this book, Protocols for Nucleic Acid Analysis by Nonradioactive Probes, I have endeavored to select protocols that have wide applicability. My aim in doing so is to allow nucleic acid analysis to move from the confines of specialized research labora- ries and into general purpose and teaching laboratories. In particular, disciplines such as population biology and clinical diagnostics (where the application of the technology is important, not the technology itself) will find the newer techniques easier to perform with the qu- tity of samples that are normally required in these fields. Die-hard molecular biologists with hot fingers will find, by trying some of the protocols in this book, that nonradioactive protocols are normally faster than their radioactive brethren, and give more reliable results. An expanded description of the subject areas covered by this book is given in Chapter 1. The technology herein has very broad application; for instance, in conventional molecular biology research, population biology, plant and animal breeding, genetic mapping, paternity testing, forensics, prenatal diagnosis, and clinical and food microbiology. I have tried to include comprehensive protocols for both basic and more complex analyses. There are chapters dealing with the fundamentals of nucleic acid extraction from plants and a- mals, and with the procedures necessary to immobilize nucleic acids on solid supports. A range of labeling procedures is included, f- lowed by a selection of hybridization procedures.
