| DNA staining with EMBER™ Ultra DNA Gel Kit | Agarose is supplied pre-coated with EMBER™ Ultra Dye, just dissolve, heat, and pour. | • Safer and more convenient, no need to handle concentrated dye
• Superior sensitivity, detect as little as ≤1 ng DNA
• No need for post-electrophoresis staining
• Optimal for blue LED gel imagers | • Not suitable for PAGE, DGGE, EMSA, or PFGE gels
• Dye may cause band migration issues when loading larger amounts of DNA (more than ~200 ng/band), or for some restriction digests | • Routine agarose gels |
| RNA staining with EMBER™ Ultra RNA Gel Kit | Agarose is supplied pre-coated with EMBER™ Ultra Dye, just dissolve, heat, and pour. | • Safer and more convenient stain for RNA, no need to handle concentrated dye
• Superior sensitivity, detect as little as ≤5 ng RNA
• No need for post-electrophoresis staining
• Included loading dye contains formamide for denaturing
• Optimal for blue LED gel imagers | • Will stain DNA as well as RNA
• Dye may cause band migration issues when loading larger amounts of RNA (more than ~200 ng/band) | • Routine RNA gel electrophoresis
• Evaluate total RNA integrity and DNA contamination |
| DNA prestaining with GelRed® Prestain Plus 6X DNA Loading Dye | GelRed® loading buffer is added directly to the DNA sample before loading | • Fast & simple: one-step sample loading & DNA staining
• Less concentrated dye for safer handling
• Can re-run a gel to use empty lanes
| • Not recommended for PAGE, DGGE, EMSA, or PFGE gels
• Dye may cause band migration issues when loading larger amounts of DNA (more than ~100 ng/band), or for some restriction digests | • Routine agarose gels
• Recommended loading 50-200 ng ladder or 2-5 uL PCR product ( ~100 ng/band or less) |
Precast staining with GelRed® 10,000X in water or GelGreen® 10,000X in water
| GelRed® or GelGreen® is mixed with molten agarose before gel casting | Familiar protocol, rapid results |
Precast staining with GelRed® Agarose LE or GelGreen® Agarose LE
| Agarose is supplied pre-coated with GelRed® or GelGreen®, just dissolve, heat, and pour | Safer & more convenient, no need to handle concentrated dye |
Post-electrophoresis staining with GelRed® 10,000X in water or GelGreen® 10,000X in water
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GelRed® 3X in water
| No fluorescent dye is added to the gel, it is stained in 3X GelRed® or 3X GelGreen® solution after electrophoresis | • Most accurate sizing/sharpest bands
• Staining solution can be re-used
• Enhance sensitivity by adding NaCl | Extra staining step (up to 30 minutes) after electrophoresis (some customers report good results after only 5 minutes if dye is not reused) | • Highly accurate band sizing
• Gels with more than ~100 ng DNA per band
• Analyzing restriction digests |
| Post-electrophoresis staining with DNAzure® 2.0 Visible Blue DNA Gel Stain Kit | No fluorescent dye is added to the gel, it is stained in DNazure® 2.0 solution and then exposed to a bright light source to generate visible blue DNA bands.
We recommend the Glo-Plate™ White Photoactivation Device as a light source for developing DNAzure® 2.0-stained gels | • Allows visualization of DNA bands by the naked eye, no need for a UV light source
• Detect as little as ~1 ng DNA
• Stained bands are stable in gel for weeks
• Also emits near-IR fluorescence (~700 nm) for detection on near-IR imaging systems | Extra staining step (up to 30 minutes) followed by a light exposure step (up to 30 minutes) to generate visible blue DNA bands
| • Routine DNA agarose gels
• Visualizing gels without the UV light or expensive imaging systems
• Recommended loading 50-200 ng DNA per lane |
| Post-electrophoresis staining of PAGE gels using PAGE GelRed® 10,000X or 1X in water | No fluorescent dye is added to the gel, it is stained in 1X PAGE GelRed® solution after electrophoresis | • Formulated for efficient penetration and staining of polyacrylamide gels
• Like the classic GelRed®, it is safe and environmentally friendly | Extra staining step of approx. 30 minutes after electrophoresis | Staining of nucleic acids in PAGE gels |