The transfer of macromolecules such as nucleic acids and proteins to solid-phase membranous support is known as blotting. Fragments of DNA and RNA molecules separated by gel electrophoresis are transferred to a nylon or nitrocellulose membrane in a process termed as Southern and Northern blotting, respectively. Southern blotting was introduced by Edwin Southern in 1975 as a method to detect specific sequences of DNA in DNA samples. The other blotting techniques emerged from this method have been termed as Northern (for RNA), Western (for proteins), Eastern (for post-translational protein modifications) and Southwestern (for DNA-protein interactions) blotting.