Staining gels in a microwave

[rjanssen_imm at opal.tufts.edu]

In article <31FCDD28.48BC at firecraker.com>, Ed Beaty <ebeaty at firecraker.com> writes:
> Shane Atwell %Kuntz wrote:
>> 
>> Our lab regularly uses the microwave to speed up staining and destaining
>> of SDS-coomassie gels. I microwave 1-2 minutes (just to boiling) with
>> stain, shake for a couple minutes, then destain in the same manner
>> (microwave 1-2 minutes, shake), repeating with fresh destain once or
>> twice. The whole thing can be finished in <15 minutes. Sometimes there's
>> a film of commassie left on the gel. I think this is correlated with
>> heating the gel in stain too long. Sometimes a longer destain is
>> required to clean the gel up before preservation.
>> 
>> SA
> 
> 
> This may not be too safe, since most Coomassie stains have mehtanol + acetic acid in it.  The methanol vapors 
> could (maybe) ignite from sparks in the Microwave, and hot acetic acid fumes can't be good for your lungs.
> 
> And don't run with scissors, either.  ;)
> 
> But maybe heating up the Coomassie to 50 degC or so in an incubator?  Maybe heat alone would be sufficient to 
> accelerate the staining?
> 
> Ed Beaty


Another tip for faster destaining: Heat up the destaining solution to about 70
degrees C and put pieces of kimwipes in the corners of the tray. They suck up
the dye really fast.

Question: Does the gel change shape more than usual when stained with hot 
Coomassie.

Good luck

Richard Janssen