Non radioactive

[James Abbott]

curtis alexander wrote:

> Can anyone suggest a reliable, sensitive and relatively quick non
> radioactive method of detection?  Any help will be appriciated.

We have tried a couple of different kits, generally fairly succesfully. For 
Westerns, both ECL kits from Amersham and a kit from NEB seem successful, the 
NEB kit produced fewer artifacts and less background than ECL, but Amersham 
have since produced a new version of the kit which is meant to be better. 

For Southerns and colony blots, we have used ECL again, although this hasn't 
been as good for low target concentrations. In one case we also tried 
Amershams Gene Imager kit for use in low target applications but without 
success.

By far the best results have come using DIG labelling from Boehringer 
Mannheim, although using the kit as directed did not produce particularly 
impressive results. Following the protocol of Blum et al (1993) (see below 
for reference) produced startlingly good results. The blot used with 
Amershams Gene Imager was stripped, and reprobed with a DIG labelled 
riboprobe and this protocol and produced bands we had not been able to see 
using 32P - very impressive stuff, and completely safe.

The reference for the protocol is below:-

Authors - Blum G.E., Meier, M., Frank, J., Muller, G.A.
Year - 1993
Title - Reduction of Background Problems in Nonradioactive Northern and 
Southern Blot Analysys Enables Higher Sensitivity Then 32P-Based 
Hybridizations
Journal - Anal. Biochem
Volume - 210
Pages - 235-244


Hope this is of some use.
Happy Blotting,
James