Agarose gel electrophoresis

General Procedure

1. Cast a gel
2. Place it in gel box in running buffer
3. Load samples
4. Run the gel
5. Image the gel

Buffers

• TAE - better resolution of fragments >4kb;
• TBE - better resolution of 0.1-3kb fragments; TBE is better suited for high-voltage (>150V) electrophoresis than TAE because of its higher buffering capacity and lower conductivity;

Loading dyes

dye	0.5-1.5% agarose	2.0-3.0% agarose*
xylene cyanol	4000-5000 bp	750 bp
bromophenol blue	400-500 bp	100 bp

*sieving agarose

Specific Protocols

Endy:Agarose gel

Knight:Agarose gel electrophoresis

Notes

• If you are getting unexpected bands on your gel you may want to look at the common issues in agarose gel electrophoresis page.
• If you have no experience with gel electrophoresis or are explaining it to someone new, here is a cute java demo of what happens.