ICON Probe

The important regulation of gene expression and sequence errors is the regulation of epigenetic modifications related to methylation. In particular, the methylation and demethylation of cytosine (C) in DNA are important epigenetic modifications in the genomes of many plants and animals. This process regulates developmental gene expression, chromatin remodeling, genome imprinting, and many other human diseases ( Including early and basic events in the pathogenesis of cancer. The methylation and demethylation of C are the most important epigenetic events that occur in DNA, and their analysis is very meaningful. Many methylation analysis techniques have been widely used to detect 5mC and 5hmC, such as the classic bisulfite sequencing method. MeFISH is a useful technique for visual analysis of methylation in situ. The rapid, selective, and DNA-compatible chemical reaction that can distinguish between C and 5mC will help to effectively analyze the C methylation status of a specific site in a gene. The principle is that in the presence of a bipyridine ligand, oxidized osmium reacts with C5-methylated pyrimidine to form a stable ternary complex.

Fig 1. Crosslinking of ICON probe with the target 5mC in DNA by osmium complex formation. (Okamoto A, et al. 2019)

ICON Probe Design and Customization Services

The oxidation of pyrimidine bases is a practical method that can be used to determine whether there is a methylation modification at the C position in a DNA sequence. ICON technology can be used to identify 5mC residues in the target sequence at the cellular and chromosome levels. We have an industry-leading synthetic probe service provider that can provide customers with high-quality ICON custom probes. The sequence design can be completed by our experts or we can assist the customer. At the same time, the customer can choose to upload his own sequence. We provide a variety of fluorescent groups for customers to choose from, and the detection range can cover the spectral range of the current fluorescence microscope. In addition, ICON probes for the two-color FISH scheme can be customized according to customer needs.

Advantages of ICON Probes

Will not cause serious DNA damage when detecting 5mC;

Reduce 5mC binding of non-sequence specific related problems;

Potentially it can be used to detect 5mC in satellite repetitive sequences;

Creative Bioarray provides sequence-specific ICON probes to help customers perform an in-situ visual analysis of DNA methylation. We provide a variety of fluorescent labeling dyes and labeling methods to meet customer needs and accept orders for fully commissioned and synthetic probes. At the same time, we also provide sliced MeFISH analysis services. You will benefit from our in-house optimized design method to provide you with a cost-effective FISH probe customized solution. If you are interested in our ICON probe customization service, please contact us for customization. We look forward to cooperating with you in the near future.

References

1. Okamoto A. Next-generation fluorescent nucleic acids probes for microscopic analysis of intracellular nucleic acids[J]. Applied Microscopy, 2019, 49(1): 1-7.
2. Okamoto A, Tainaka K, Kamei T. Sequence-selective osmium oxidation of DNA: efficient distinction between 5-methylcytosine and cytosine[J]. Organic & biomolecular chemistry, 2006, 4(9): 1638-1640.