Nonrandom arrangement of bovine satellite I DNA within the interphase nucleus of Madin-Darby bovine kidney cells.

The distribution of bovine satellite DNA was examined in Madin-Darby bovine kidney cells for each hour of interphase. Cells were grown on coverslips and probed using biotinylated cloned fragments of bovine satellite I DNA. Hybridization was detected using a streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase conjugate. Cells were projected onto a grid of fixed dimensions and the distribution of hybridization signal was recorded. A chi 2 analysis of fit compared this distribution of signals to a random distribution generated from the poisson distribution. Nuclear localization of bovine satellite I DNA was found to be nonrandom throughout interphase except at the G1/S border and S = 6 h. Moreover, distinct patterns of hybridization were also observed at specific times during interphase.