EtBr ussage

[John Nash]

In article <1993Jun18.152949.1 at vax1.tcd.ie> brennanp at vax1.tcd.ie writes:
>From: brennanp at vax1.tcd.ie
>Subject: Re: EtBr ussage
>Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1993 15:29:49 GMT

>On EtBr,

>I once heard an interesting suggestion that instead of soaking
>the gel in EtBr to add small amount of EtBr soln to the samples
>before running the gel.  It still allows visualation but does
>not require the large amts of EtBr reqd for soaking gels.

>I have never used it myself but it sounded neat, maybe someone
>else knows more details

I only soak gels when I forget to add EtBr to my gel (or for PFGE, which 
says not to).  Add 15 ul of 4 mg/ml EtBr stock per 100 ml gel (worked out 
empirically).  Destain in tap water for 10 min. 

When I soak gels, unless they are extensively washed, they leak EtBr... look 
at your gloves under UV.  EtBr pre-mixed in the gels never seems to leak 
out, and it just a gel to dispose of, not litres of EtBr.


  cheers, John

  John Nash                           | Email: Nash at biologysx.lan.nrc.ca.
  Institute for Biological Sciences   |
  National Research Council of Canada | Email to my other NRC accounts
  Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.            | is usually forwarded here.
	  *** Disclaimer:  All opinions are mine, not NRC's! ***