Table 1.

Summary of general advantages and disadvantages of the hotplate spreading and squashing methods of chromosome preparation.

	Spreading	Squashing
Material	- must be killed freshly	+ can be fixed in field
	- keep it alive, store it for short time (month)	+ store it for months or longer
Equipment	+ possible to perform it in the field (need of electricity)	- not possible to perform it in the field (need of solid CO2 or liquid N)
Overall difficulty	+ lower	- higher
	+ just handle to move with droplet on slide properly with fine tungsten needles	- cells must be in chromosomes on slide is hardly analyzable single layer, if not
Results	+ even on material rich slides is only single layer of cells	- on material rich slides is high probability of overlap
	+ i.e. more analyzable nuclei	- i.e. fewer analyzable nuclei