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Comparative analysis of the DNA staining efficiencies of different fluorescent dyes in preparative agarose gel electrophoresis

  • ️Wei-Ling Fu
  • ️Mon Aug 01 2005

Abstract

Ethidium bromide (EB) is a mutagen and toxin that is widely used in the laboratory for visualization of nucleic acids. Safer nucleic acid stains, such as SYBR ® Gold, SYBR ® Green, GoldView™, GeneFinder ®, and GoldStar ®, have been developed. However, there has been no systematic comparative analysis of the staining efficiencies of these dyes. In the present study, SYBR ® Gold, SYBR ® Green I, GoldView™ and EB were compared. Although both SYBR ® Gold and SYBR ® Green alter electrophoretic mobility and thus DNA size estimates, they are cost-effective alternatives to EB. SYBR ® Gold was more sensitive than SYBR ® Green I at detecting short fragments, but 50-bp bands were clearly visible using either dye when visualized with a long integration time. SYBR ® Gold or SYBR ® Green I are sensitive and relatively safe alternatives to EB. In our laboratory, the SYBR ® Gold method is now used routinely by all members of our group with great consistency and success.

Corresponding author: Prof. Wei-Ling Fu, PhD, MD, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Southwestern Hospital, the Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China Phone: +86-23-6546-0802, Fax: +86-23-6546-0909, weilingfu@yahoo.com

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Received: 2005-4-4

Accepted: 2005-6-17

Published Online: 2011-9-21

Published in Print: 2005-8-1

©2005 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York