TBE precipitation

[Ricardo Silva]

Hi,

> I am running a lot of DNA sequencing gels in my lab. One of the reagents we
> use routinely is the TBE. We usually make a 10X stock and make dilution from
> there. As many of you may already notice that 10XTBE will precipitate after
> the stock is used/opened.  I am trying to get some chemistry explanations
> about this precipitation. Is it because of the solubility, pH or chemical
> reactions with air?  Thank you.

I once read in an old Biotechniques that filtering the TBE stock 
through a 0.45 um filter solves the problem. The authors claimed 
they could routinely store 50 X stocks!! There was also some 
blurbing about dust particles being nucleation centers for TBE.

cheers,

alejandro