Development of oligonucleotide probes for FISH karyotyping in Haynaldia villosa,a wild relative of common wheat

Haynaldia villosa is a wild relative of wheat and a valuable gene resource for wheat improvement.Owing to the limited number of probes available for fluorescence in situ hybridization(FISH),the resolution at which the karyotype of H.villosa can be characterized is poor,hampering accurate characterization of small segmental alien introgressions.We designed ten oligonucleotide probes using tandem repeats in DNA sequences derived from the short arm of H.villosa chromosome 6 V(6 VS).FISH with seven of them resulted in clear signals on H.villosa chromosomes.Using these,we constructed FISH karyotypes for H.villosa using oligo-6 VS-1 and oligo-6 VS-35 oligonucleotides and characterized the distribution of the two probes in five different H.villosa accessions.The new FISH probes can efficiently characterize H.villosa introgressions into wheat.

Detection of two pathogenic marine ciliates Ancistrum haliotis and A. crassum(Ciliophora: Scuticociliatia) by fluorescence in situ hybridization

The scuticociliatid ciliates Ancistrum haliotis and A.crassum are parasites that may cause high mortality in the cultured abalone Haliotis spp.and the bivalve Ruditapes philippinarum.Traditional identification with silver staining methods is hampered by their morphological similarities to closely related species and the complicated procedures of morphological analysis.We designed two SSU rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes labeled with a fluorochrome,and optimized the fluorescence in situ hybridization(FISH)protocols for identification of A.halioti and A.crassum,respectively.The assays resulted in a clear identification by strong fluorescence signals from the oligonucleotide probes.The method can be used for quick and accurate quantitative analysis of A.haliotis and A.crassum infections on host molluscs.