FISHing with locked nucleic acids (LNA): evaluation of different LNA/DNA mixmers

Locked Nucleic Acids (LNA) constitute a novel class of DNA analogues that have an exceptionally high affinity towards complementary DNA and RNA. Using human classical satellite-2 repeat sequence clusters as targets, we demonstrate that LNA/DNA mixmers oligonucleotides are excellent probes for FISH combining high binding affinity with short hybridization time and even with the ability to hybridize without prior thermal denaturation of the template. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.