Table 2 Overview of I-FISH techniques

I-FISH with centromeric probes

I-FISH on interpahse nuclei painting pericentromeric (heterochromatic) regions

High hybridization efficiency, chromosome specifity (apart few chromosomes)

Signal associations, impossible to analyze chromosomes 5,13, 14, 19, 21, 22; heteromorphisms

[7, 10, 20–22, 30, 35, 41, 58–60, 81, 82]

I-FISH with site-specific probes

I-FISH painting specific euchromatic genomic loci

Small specific genomic loci are visualized

Low hybridization efficiency, numerous artifacts

[8, 13, 28, 42, 47–50, 69]

I-FISH with wcp

I-FISH painting chromosome territories

Identification of nuclear chromosome territories

Chromosome territories are ambiguous, no additional information

[57, 70–72, 93]

mFISH

Multicolor I-FISH with >2 probes labeled by different fluorochromes/ligands

Analysis of several targeted genomic loci

Difficulty to distinguish between artifacts and aneuploidy/polyploidy

[7, 10, 20–22, 30, 35]

mFISH/QFISH

mFISH + QFISH digitalization of FISH signals

Distinguishes between FISH artifacts and aneuploidy (polyploidy)

Same as mFISH

[7, 10, 24–29, 32, 35]

MFISH

Simultaneous visualization of the complete set of chromosomes in an interphase nucleus

All chromosome territories are simultaneously seen

Exceedingly sophisticated analysis; data poorly interpretable

[70, 93]

ICS-MCB

Chromosome-specific MCB generated on interphase nuclei

Visualization of whole banded interphase chromosomes in their integrity

A pair of homologous chromosomes is studied per assay; relative complexity of the analysis

[7, 10, 13, 19, 23, 24, 26–29, 31, 33–35, 74, 75]