Hybridization vs. Southern Blot

[DragonWell]

I had a question the other day which was basically asking how you would identify a cell which contains a certain DNA sequence. Pretty much all the answer choices you would expect were listed: several of the blots, hybridization, immunohistochemical stain, etc.

I was thinking it must be southern blot or hybridization, but I had no idea which was the better answer. I'm pretty bad at molecular bio, can anybody help me figure out what this question is getting at? Particularly how a southern blot would be used differently than hybridization?

 

[Jonathan13180]

I had a question the other day which was basically asking how you would identify a cell which contains a certain DNA sequence. Pretty much all the answer choices you would expect were listed: several of the blots, hybridization, immunohistochemical stain, etc.

I was thinking it must be southern blot or hybridization, but I had no idea which was the better answer. I'm pretty bad at molecular bio, can anybody help me figure out what this question is getting at? Particularly how a southern blot would be used differently than hybridization?

My guess would be southern blot...southern blotting USES hybridization in its procedure, but hybridization is NOT specific for DNA, you can hybridize RNA, protein, etc.

 

[Blesbok]

My guess would be southern blot...southern blotting USES hybridization in its procedure, but hybridization is NOT specific for DNA, you can hybridize RNA, protein, etc.

I am betting it was southern blot and FISH, but the entire question would really be needed to answer it to determine the situation, but my guess would be southern blot too.

 

[DragonWell]

I ended up putting Southern Blot (thanks to SNOWDROP), but I lingered over the hybridization answer for a while. I wasn't sure if there was something I was missing here. Thanks for the input.

 

[nowai]

I ended up putting Southern Blot (thanks to SNOWDROP), but I lingered over the hybridization answer for a while. I wasn't sure if there was something I was missing here. Thanks for the input.

What's SNOWDROP?

 

[DragonWell]

What's SNOWDROP?

Just a little mnemonic for keeping the blots straight.

S-D -DNA
N-R -RNA
O-O -nothing
W-P -Protein

 

[butaloh666]

I had a question the other day which was basically asking how you would identify a cell which contains a certain DNA sequence. Pretty much all the answer choices you would expect were listed: several of the blots, hybridization, immunohistochemical stain, etc.

I was thinking it must be southern blot or hybridization, but I had no idea which was the better answer. I'm pretty bad at molecular bio, can anybody help me figure out what this question is getting at? Particularly how a southern blot would be used differently than hybridization?

I think the answer would depend on the question stem, especially if the choice was between a southern blot and FISH. Both can be used to identify a certain known DNA sequence, but FISH can be used in situ whereas tissue processing and DNA extraction would be required for a southern blot (an in vitro procedure). It would really depend on the purpose. For example a genetic screening for some disease (sb) versus chromosome mapping (FISH).