Polyacrylamide Gel Shrinkage

[Victor DeFilippis]

Dear Anyone:

I'm having trouble with 80 cm 6% polyacrylamide gels.  They pour
fine and then sit overnight to be run in the morning.  When it comes 
time to run them I notice that even though I've sealed the plates up 
tight with wet kimwipes, Saran wrap, tape, etc. the gel has actually 
polymerized so that it's come away from the spacers about a 
millimeter or so (shrunk).  This creates a gap between the spacer 
and the gel that buffer (and current) seep into.  This draws the DNA 
in the outside lanes  behind the rest of the lanes which consequently
makes reading these lanes impossible.  It is necessary to pour these
gels the night before as they take a long time to polymerize and a 
very long time to run.  Any advice at all would be appeciated.


vicdef at biology.biosci.wayne.edu