Many chromosome assays rely on the quantification of chromosome abnormalities in cells, and one important abnormality is the existence of more than one centromere for each chromosome. The quantification of such abnormalities has been studied before. However, this process is labor-intensive and time consuming. Thus, this assay is challenging for ex-laboratory applications, where speed is required. We present a visualization method that uses a cheap stain—DAPI, long (e.g., high-resolution) chromosomes and our modified C-banding method for labeling chromosomes. The labeled chromosomes can then be easily seen with a conventional and readily available fluorescence microscopy system. This method achieves an acceleration of the detection of the presence of constitutive heterochromatin in chromosomal centromeres by more than 10 times, to ~2 h, in Human lymphocyte cells and in cells of the human Jurkat line. This new procedure will ultimately provide an easier and cheaper alternative to FISH/PNA probes, or the classic Giemsa staining method. Simplification and reduction in time of the overall procedure will enable the utilization of centromere-counting assays in laboratory and ex-laboratory applications, including in emergency response.

许多染色体测定依赖于细胞中染色体异常的量化，一个重要的异常是每个染色体存在多个着丝粒。以前已经研究过这种异常的量化。然而，这个过程是劳动密集型和耗时的。因此，这种检测对于需要速度的实验室前应用具有挑战性。我们提出了一种使用廉价染色剂的可视化方法——DAPI、长（例如，高分辨率）染色体和我们改进的用于标记染色体的 C 带方法。然后可以使用常规且易于获得的荧光显微镜系统轻松看到标记的染色体。该方法将染色体着丝粒中组成型异染色质的检测加速了 10 倍以上，达到约 2 小时，在人类淋巴细胞和人类 Jurkat 细胞系的细胞中。这种新程序最终将为 FISH/PNA 探针或经典的吉姆萨染色方法提供一种更简单、更便宜的替代方法。整个程序的简化和时间缩短将使着丝粒计数分析能够在实验室和实验室外应用中使用，包括在应急响应中。