High-performance field inversion capillary electrophoresis of 0.1-23 kbp DNA fragments with low-gelling, replaceable agarose gels

Field inversion capillary gel electrophoresis (FICGE) has been used for the separation of 0.1-23 kbp DNA fragments in a low-melting, low-gelling agarose gel. The influence of the amplitude of the voltage pulses, the pulse times and gel concentrations on the separation factor has been studied and found to be similar to that of polyacrylamide gels. Very high resolution can be obtained by altering continuously the pulse times and/or voltage according to a program tailor-made for the size of the DNA molecules to be separated (programmed FICGE). The advantage of these agarose gels in comparison with polyacrylamide gels is that they are nontoxic, easy to prepare and they have high UV transmission. They give a resolution that is equivalent to or better than that of polyacrylamide gels, and the risk of bubble formation in the gel is small. In addition, they are replaceable and, therefore, very convenient for automated analyses.