exposing tritium gels

[Stephen R. Lasky, Ph.D.]

In article <f.a.cassidy-1807950943510001 at bcs93.bham.ac.uk>,
f.a.cassidy at uk.ac.birmingham (Fiona Cassidy) wrote:

> I am running SDS PAGE and IEF gels of proteins which I have labelled with
> tritium, and would like to expose wet gels. I am wondering if wrapping
> these gels in cling film/saran wrap/ cellophane or something similar will
> cause any problems with the signal detection?  I'd be grateful to hear if
> anyone has done this in the past
> thanks

I believe that tritium labeled proteins don't have enough energy to expose
film in a reasonable amount of time (maybe ever) even if the film and gel
are in intimate contact, therefore I have to assume that you are using an
enhancing system such as ppo/popop (original fluorography recipe) or
something like Enhance to boost the signal.  If this is the case, I think
that the energy that is emitted has a wavelength between 370 and 530 nm
(or somewhere close to that, I don't remember exactly) which is just
light.  Therefore, I think that if you can see through the saran wrap, the
light should pass through it also. 

SRLasky