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Electrophoretic size separations in liquified agarose of polystyrene particles and circular DNA
Author(s) -
Boček Petr,
Chrambach Andreas
Publication year - 1991
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.1150120904
Subject(s) - agarose , electrophoresis , gel electrophoresis of nucleic acids , polymer , chromatography , polystyrene , particle size , agarose gel electrophoresis , chemistry , dna , particle (ecology) , biochemistry , organic chemistry , biology , ecology
Polystyrene sulfate particles of 0.37 to 1.78 μ in diameter are retarded in their electrophoretic migration in proportion to the concentration of agarose liquified above its gelling temperature. In the concentration range of 0.02 to 0.2% liquified agarose, the degree of this retardation in electrophoresis at 40°C is inversely related to particle size. By contrast, mitochondrial DNA (16 kb), plasmid pBR322 DNA (4 kb) and plasmid PSA509 DNA (3 kb) exhibit under the same conditions a degree of retardation which is proportional to their size. This confirms the existence of two divergent mechanisms of size separation similarly observed in other liquid polymer media, i.e. one based on collisions with the gel fiber (molecular sieving) and one based on exclusion from the fiber network (the electrophoretic equivalent of gel permeation).