Abstract
With the rapid expansion of whole-genome sequencing and other genomic studies in nonmodel organisms, there is a growing demand for robust and user-friendly methods for estimating eukaryotic genome sizes across a broad range of taxa. Propidium iodide (PI) staining with flow cytometry is a powerful method for genome sizing because it is relatively fast, works with a wide variety of materials, and provides information on a very large number of nuclei. In this method, nuclei are stained with PI, which intercalates into the major groove of DNA. Unknown samples are typically costained with standard nuclei of a known genome size, and the relative fluorescence is used to calculate the genome size of the unknown.
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Hare, E.E., Johnston, J.S. (2012). Genome Size Determination Using Flow Cytometry of Propidium Iodide-Stained Nuclei. In: Orgogozo, V., Rockman, M. (eds) Molecular Methods for Evolutionary Genetics. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 772. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-228-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-228-1_1
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