Quantitating DNA or RNA?

[Martin Offterdinger]

On Sun, 2 Nov 1997 19:06:11 GMT, Harry Witchel
<Harry.Witchel at Bristol.ac.Uk> wrote:

>Hi folks --
>    I am looking for a relatively quick (but not necessarily cheap)
>method for quantitating the amount of DNA or RNA in a 1 ul sample.
>Currently I use gel electrophoresis which is a bit too slow and does not
>detect below 10 ng (in my hands), and gel electrophoresis is useless for
>mRNA quantitation.  I have in the past tried spotting DNA on to agarose
>with Ethidium Bromide and making Ethidium bromide spots on saran wrap
>(Maniatis protocols), and I unfortunately found that in my hands all I
>could tell is whether there was more than 100 ng in the sample --
>background seemed quite high.
>    Thanks in advance,
>        Harry
>
Molecular probes sells a compound known as sybro green - they claim
that it is more sensitive than ethidium bromide and less mutagenic -
have never tried it personally.
Martin