How does degraded DNA look on gel?

[Magdalena Cano Plewinska]

Newswatcher at sickkids.on.ca (Newswatcher) wrote:

>
>Is it just a smear?  Or will I see couple of bands also?
>
>2 of my DNA samples showed same bands on top of slight smearing upon
>electrophoresis, though most of the DNA are above 10kb.  Just wondering if
>that's degradations or contaminations.

Agnes:

Could the smear you are seeing be RNA? Did you RNAse your prep before
putting it on the gel?


   - Magdalena M. Plewinska, MD
     Genetics  
     University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA