ABSTRACT
Nonradioactive labels have become an increasingly popular choice over traditional radioisotope labels for most nucleic acid detection applications. In addition to being preferred for safety reasons, nonradioactive labels have the advantages of better stability, ease of use, and versatility in providing the ability to choose, from a variety of detection methods, the one best suited to a particular application or analysis platform. Optical detection technologies such as fluorescence microscopy have advanced to the point at which comparable, and in some cases better, sensitivity can be achieved relative to radioactive labeling. The use of labels such as biotin or other high-affinity ligands allows secondary signal generators, such as enzyme conjugates, to be bound immunochemically to achieve sensivities surpassing those of single flourescent molecules or radioisotopes.
