What are the applications of nucleic acid hybridization?

Nucleic acid hybridization is commonly used to identify a complementary target sequence within a complex mixture of nucleic acids. It can separate particular sequences, assess homology or be used to characterize features of one or both nucleic acid strands. Nucleic acid hybridization probes are also used in the FISH technique to identify particular groups of bacteria, archaea, or eukarya in soil samples. Hybridization techniques, such as Northern blotting and microarrays, are used to analyze gene expression patterns by detecting and quantifying RNA transcripts in different experimental conditions. Hybridization-based assays are also used in clinical settings for the detection of genetic mutations, deletions, or duplications that are associated with diseases or malignancies.