Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine

Southern Blot Scholarly Peer-review Journal

A Southern blot may be a method utilized in biology for detection of a selected DNA sequence in DNA samples. Southern blotting combines transfer of electrophoresis-separated DNA fragments to a filter membrane and subsequent fragment detection by probe hybridization. The method is known as after British biologist Edwin Southern, who first published it in 1975.Other blotting methods (i.e., western blot, northern blot, eastern blot, south-western blot) that employ similar principles, but using RNA or protein, have later been named in regard to Edwin Southern's name. Because the label is eponymous, Southern is capitalized, as is conventional of proper nouns. The names for other blotting methods may follow this convention, by analogy. Hybridization of the probe to a specific DNA fragment on the filter membrane indicates that this fragment contains DNA sequence that is complementary to the probe. The transfer step of the DNA from the electrophoresis gel to a membrane permits easy binding of the labelled hybridization probe to the size-fractionated DNA.

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