Nurturing Life Sciences
#Id: 2816
#Id: 2476
#Unit 13. Methods in Biology
Agarose is one of the components of agar, which is a mixture of polysaccharides isolated from certain seaweeds and usually used at concentrations of between 1% and 3% in labs.
#Id: 2477
Agarose gels are formed by suspending dry agarose in aqueous buffer, then boiling the mixture until a clear solution forms.
#Id: 2478
The most commonly used buffer for separating DNA is TRIS-acetate containing EDTA ( TAE) with a typical pH of 8.3 and used to dissolve the matrix (agarose) as well as the running buffer.
#Id: 2479
Separation of RNA, TRIS-borate with EDTA ( TBE) is typically used due to superior buffering capacity (beneficial for long run times).
#Id: 2480
TBE gives superior separation of smaller fragments (< 2 kb) in comparison to TAE and is often used for separation of small RNA molecules such as microRNA.
#Id: 2481
Polyacrylamide Gel are formed by the polymerization of acrylamide monomer in the presence of smaller amounts of N,N′-methylene-bis-acrylamide (normally referred to as ‘ bis-acrylamide’).