It also enables GenomeFISH to reach superior signal intensities compared to traditional FISH, allowing it to visualise microbial lineages that are challenging to visualise with traditional FISH, such as members of the Patescibacteria.

As a result, GenomeFISH can distinguish between strains with up to 99% ANI in mock communities and environmental samples.

GenomeFISH probes can be rapidly generated from single cell genomes obtained from environmental and clinical samples, which are amplified, fragmented, fluorescently labelled, and hybridised to visualise the target microorganism in situ.

GenomeFISH also reaches superior signal intensities compared to traditional FISH, allowing it to visualise microbial lineages that are challenging to visualise with traditional FISH.

GenomeFISH can distinguish between strains with up to 99% ANI and was successfully applied to visualise strains in mock communities and human faecal samples.

GenomeFISH is an innovative, genome-based FISH approach that couples high-throughput single-cell genomics with whole-genome hybridisation to visualise microbial communities.