Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis

Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis

Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis provides very high resolution of DNA molecules 10–3,000 bp long. Under the appropriate conditions, DNA molecules differing in size by only a single base pair can be resolved. Life Technologies offers convenient reagents for polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, including hassle-free precast Novex® polyacrylamide gels, DNA ladders, and UltraPure™ reagents for pouring your own gels.

Novex® Precast DNA Gels

A large variety of Novex® precast gels are available from Life Technologies. To obtain the best result based on your application (PCR fragment separation, DNA retardation, etc.), it is important to choose the correct gel percentage, buffer system, gel format, and thickness. Figure 1 shows the migration pattern of nucleic acids run on Novex® gels. Use the table to help you select the optimal gel for your experiments.

 Figure 1. Gel migration chart. The table below demonstrates patterns of nucleic acid separation on Novex® gels. Use the table below to select the optimal gel for your experiments. For optimal resolution, nucleic acid bands should migrate within the shaded areas

Choosing the Right Novex® Gel

For DNA analysis

Novex® TBE Gels provide the highest resolution for DNA fragments 10–3,000 bp long. Use these gels for any DNA electrophoresis application, including analyzing restriction-enzyme digests, PCR products, Southern analysis, and primer analysis.

 

For DNA retardation and gel shift assays

Novex® DNA Retardation Gels consist of 6% polyacrylamide prepared with 0.5X TBE as the gel buffer. They provide good resolution of 60–2,500 bp DNA fragments. 0.5X TBE buffer offers good fragment separation in electrophoresis, yet its ionic strength is low enough to promote DNA-protein interactions.

 

For denaturing DNA analysis

Novex® TBE-Urea Gels are optimized for analysis and purification of single-stranded DNA or RNA 20–800 bases long. They are an ideal choice for synthetic oligonucleotide analysis and purification, RNase protection assays, in vitro transcription studies, and northern blot analysis.

 

The size of Novex® precast gels is 10 x 10 cm (gel size is 8 x 8 cm). Life Technologies recommends using the XCell SureLock® Mini-Cell Electrophoresis System to obtain optimal and consistent performance.

DNA Ladders and Markers

 Life Technologies offers a broad selection of DNA ladders and markers ranging from 10 bp to 50 Kb for accurate analysis of linear double-stranded DNA in agarose gels. A variety of these ladders are available in the ready-to-use TrackIt™ and E-Gel®  formats, including our popular 1 Kb Plus DNA Ladder and 100 bp DNA Ladder.

DNA Stains

 Many DNA stains are available from Life Technologies including SYBR® Safe DNA gel stain and ethidium bromide. SYBR® Safe DNA gel stain is a superior DNA stain that is nontoxic and nonmutagenic, yet has similar DNA detection sensitivity as ethidium bromide.

UltraPure™ Agarose and Reagents

 

Life Technologies offers a wide range of UltraPure™ agarose products for preparing your own gels for nucleic acid electrophoresis. All UltraPure™ reagents are made from the highest purity biochemicals for maximum reliability and superior performance.

Every UltraPure™ lot is tested to help ensure:

  • Low electroendosmosis to minimize internal convection and band spreading during electrophoresis, resulting in sharp band resolution
  • No detectable DNase or RNase activity

For Research Use Only. Not for human or animal therapeutic or diagnostic use.

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