ChargeSwitch® Nucleic Acid Purification Technology

Easy on your sample. Easy on you.

ChargeSwitch® nucleic acid purification technology is the simplest, cleanest, and most effective means of purifying both DNA and RNA and can be configured in a range of product formats including simple manual purification methods as well as high throughput automated applications. ChargeSwitch® technology is based on a simple ion-exchange mechanism that uses a surface ligand that is positively charged at low pH, and neutral at pH 8.5 (Figure 1) to bind and elute plasmid.
ChargeSwitch®-based kits require just three simple steps to extract nucleic acids from a wide variety of sources, including bacteria, tissues, cells, blood, forensic sample and buccal cells.

  1. Bind DNA or RNA
  2. Remove impurities through aqueous wash steps
  3. Elute DNA or RNA in a ready-to-use buffers


Unlike other DNA/RNA purification methods, ChargeSwitch® is 100% water-based and does not employ the use of harsh reaqents such as chaotropicsalts, ethanol, or organics and isopropanol precipitation, which are known to compromise the efficiency of many downstream processes such as PCR (see Figure 2). As a result, ChargeSwitch®-based protocols can offer significant performance benefits.

Simple 3-Step Protocol

  1. The ChargeSwitch® ligand acquires a positive charge at low pH values (< 6.5) and binds DNA and RNA through their negatively charged phosphate backbone.
  2. Proteins and other impurities can be separated from the ChargeSwitch-bound nucleic acids through the use of aqueous wash buffers.
  3. Nucleic acids can then be released from the ChargeSwitch® ligand when the pH of the surrounding media is raised (> 8.5) and the positive charge is neutralized.

Typical ChargeSwitch Protocol
Figure 1. Typical ChargeSwitch® Technology Protocol
ChargeSwitch Wash Buffer
Figure 2. Typical ChargeSwitch® Technology Protocol

The inhibitory reagents used in most plasmid purification techniques are difficult to detect when measuring DNA quality on gels or by UV spectophotometry. They can, however, inhibit enzymatic reactions. The actin gene was amplified by PCR from human placental DNA in a 50 µl reaction spiked with varying volumes of ethanol, isopropanal (IPA) and a competitor wash buffers, guanidinium isothiocyanate (GTC) and ChargeSwitch® wash buffer. Ten microliters of amplified product run on a 1% agarose gel and stained with ethidium bromide.

Click here to see how Invitrogen’s ChargeSwitch® technology works and learn about the superior results you can achieve.
Formats
ChargeSwitch® technology can be used in a variety of formats - from magnetic beads to coated plates to spin columns. Initially ChargeSwitch® technology was available in the format of magnetic beads.
ChargeSwitch Well Plates
In 2006, a new line of ChargeSwitch® products was developed using 96 well plates coated with ChargeSwitch® for easy and direct purification of gDNA for PCR or qPCR without the need to elute your DNA sample.

More information on these plates
ChargeSwitch Pro Plasmid Miniprep

ChargeSwitch® technology was also developed to coat a membrane for use in a column format for plasmid minipreps and PCR clean-up. The ChargeSwitch®-Pro Plasmid miniprep and PCR Clean-up protocols retains the ease and familiarity of the common silica spin column protocol with a binding, washing, and elution step, making adapting to the ChargeSwitch® method effortless.

More information on the ChargeSwitch®-Pro Plasmid Miniprep Kit 

iPrep Purification Instrument
ChargeSwitch® reagents can also be used on the iPrep™ Purification Instrument. The iPrep™ instrument gives you the flexibility to process up to 12 samples per run or up to 192 samples per 8-hour workday. Kits for use with the iPrep™ Purification Instrument include prefilled reagents cartridges for the iPrep™ ChargeSwitch® Forensic, Buccal, gDNA Tissue and gDNA Blood kit.

More information on the iPrep™ Purification Instrument
Improve your downstream performance
Unlike classic ion exchange or silica-based nucleic acid purification technologies, ChargeSwitch®-based DNA and RNA purification protocols do not require the use of ethanol, chaotropic salts, organic solvents or time consuming precipitation steps. The resulting nucleic acid purified lacks these potentially inhibitory compounds improving DNA or RNA integrity for downstream performance in applications such as PCR, qPCR, RT-PCR, Restriction Enzyme digestion, STR analysis, sequencing, WGA, etc ). Additionally, it excels at extracting DNA from forensic samples and buccal scrapes.

Quest Magazine
Quest is an Invitrogen publication dedicated to the world of biological discovery. Published quarterly, Quest presents product reviews, exclusive interviews, industry news, research papers, custom services, grant information, and much more. The goal of this periodical is to aid researchers in their efforts to expand biological understanding.

Download an article on ChargeSwitch® Technology from our Quest archives!


ChargeSwitch® Technology in Action
Performance-tested DNA and RNA purification kits are now available that incorporate ChargeSwitch® technology. Each kit in this growing family of products has been developed and optimized to address a specific sample type, throughput level and downstream applications.

Come see what you’re missing! Give one of these innovative kits a try today!
Nucleic Acid Species Application Product
Genomic DNA Benchtop Automation Click here
Genomic DNA Animal tissues and cells Click here
Genomic DNA Bacteria Click here
Genomic DNA Plant tissues and cells, and fungi Click here
Genomic DNA Buccal Cells Click here
Genomic DNA Forensic samples Click here
Genomic DNA Blood and blood-derived samples Click here
Plasmid DNA - NEW Miniprep Columns Click here
Plasmid DNA Manual miniprep samples Click here
Plasmid DNA Automated plasmid minipreps Click here
Plasmid DNA Yeast miniprep samples Click here
DNA Agarose gel extraction Click here
DNA PCR reaction clean-up Click here
RNA Animal cells Click here
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