Perhaps someone reading this has experience with CsCl fractionation of
mtDNA? When the DNA is digested with restriction enzymes, end labelled
with P32 and run on a 1% vertical agarose gel -- what is the faint smear
between the bands composed of? It has been suggested that this indicates
the presence of linear fragments of genomic DNA that are trapped with the
mtDNA during the isolation somehow. This would be counterproductive,
wouldn't it? What else might account for faint background smears? Thanks
for any thoughts about this. Julie
