Application of Scanning Probe Microscopy to Genetic Analysis

We are developing an integrated technique involving of nanometer-size dissection of chromosome fragments by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and direct detection of the location of genome library clones by scanning near-field optical/atomic force microscopy (SNOM/AFM). The locations of nucleus organizer regions (NORs) on barley chromosomes and a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clone were successfully detected by SNOM/AFM. Nanometer-scale dissection of silkworm pachytene chromosomes was also performed by AFM, and we succeeded in three successive dissection events of the chromosome region approximately 250 nm apart from each other. If this type of integrated method can be established in the near future, we will easily obtain the nucleotide sequences with positional information on chromosomes, which lead to a time- and cost-saving genome analysis technique.