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Detection of subnanogram quantities of DNA and RNA on native and denaturing polyacrylamide and agarose gels by silver staining
Author(s) -
Guillemette Joseph G.,
Lewis Peter N.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
electrophoresis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.666
H-Index - 158
eISSN - 1522-2683
pISSN - 0173-0835
DOI - 10.1002/elps.1150040112
Subject(s) - agarose , polyacrylamide , silver stain , ethidium bromide , staining , dna , chemistry , chromatography , rna , polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis , microbiology and biotechnology , biochemistry , biology , polymer chemistry , genetics , gene , enzyme
A silver staining method is described for detecting subnanogram amounts of DNA and RNA on polyacrylamide and agarose gels. The key step for increased sensitivity and linearity is an initial soaking of the gel in a 0.1% solution of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Agarose‐containing gels can be silver stained after treatment with formaldehyde. The methods described are comparatively rapid, extremely sensitive (≅ 150 pg of DNA) and inexpensive (0.4 g of AgNo per 25 ml of slab volume).