Modification of comet-FISH technique by using temperature instead of chemical denaturation.

Comet-FISH technique is an extension of commonly used comet assay. Its purpose is to determine whether primary DNA damage which comet assay detects occurred within a sequence of interest that is visualized by hybridization of fluorescent probe. Presence of the signal in comet tail indicates impaired structural integrity of sequence. Our modifications to the original comet-FISH technique described by Rapp et al. (2000) [1] include:•increase in probe binding specificity,•increased rate of successful hybridization,•simultaneous temperature denaturation of both, slide and probe.