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One of the fundamental techniques of modern molecular biology is immobilization of nucleic acids on a solid support and subsequent detection of specific sequence of interest. A Southern blot is a method routinely used in molecular biology labs for detection of a specific DNA sequence in DNA samples. It was named after Edwin M. Southern who developed this procedure at University of Edinburgh in 1973. Edwin M. Southern was interested in the 5S rRNA genes and was facing problem to purify it. A few years before the Southern blot was developed, Tom Kelly and Hamilton Smith, both at Johns Hopkins University, had shown that restriction endonucleases cut at specific sequence sites along DNA. Kenneth and Noreen Murray who were leading figures in molecular biology at that time, introduced Southern to these restriction endonucleases. In 1971, Kathleen Danna and Daniel Nathans, also of Johns Hopkins University, showed that DNA fragments could be separated by gel electrophoresis. Southern wanted to exploit gel electrophoresis as a way to purify restriction fragment of 5S rRNA genes. As rest...

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