In genomics, DNA–DNA hybridization is a molecular biology technique that measures the degree of genetic similarity between DNA sequences.
The temperatures at which labelled DNA comes off reflects the amount of similarity between sequences (and the self-hybridization sample serves as a control).
The samples would need to be separated into individual lanes within the membrane, which would then be rotated to allow simultaneous hybridization with multiple DNA probes.
[citation needed] DNA–DNA hybridization (DDH) is used as a primary method to distinguish bacterial species as it is difficult to visually classify them accurately.
This technique utilized microplates and colorimetrically labelled DNA to decrease the time needed and increase the amount of samples that can be processed.
[13] Charles Sibley and Jon Ahlquist, pioneers of the technique, used DNA–DNA hybridization to examine the phylogenetic relationships of avians (the Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy) and primates.