Do I get the same results if I use Elchroms pre-cast gels in a regular electrophoresis unit at room temperature?
A20: Elchrom’s pre-cast gels were developed to give highest resolution and reproducibility only in combination with ORIGINS and SEA 2000 electrophoresis units. In order to achieve such high quality results, the parameters of an electrophoresis need to be tightly controlled which is not the case in a regular unit. However, Elchrom’s pre-cast gels can be run in standard units if they have a buffer volume of at least 600 ml. The running time needs to be optimised, though. When using a regular unit, the temperature of the running buffer increases with time. This results in faster migration of the DNA fragments. It is therefore impossible to predict the running distance of a certain fragment. The distance may even differ between different runs and consequently abolish any reproducibility.
