Abstract
Ethidium bromide (EB) is a mutagen and toxin that is widely used in the laboratory for visualization of nucleic acids. Safer nucleic acid stains, such as SYBR ® Gold, SYBR ® Green, GoldView™, GeneFinder ®, and GoldStar ®, have been developed. However, there has been no systematic comparative analysis of the staining efficiencies of these dyes. In the present study, SYBR ® Gold, SYBR ® Green I, GoldView™ and EB were compared. Although both SYBR ® Gold and SYBR ® Green alter electrophoretic mobility and thus DNA size estimates, they are cost-effective alternatives to EB. SYBR ® Gold was more sensitive than SYBR ® Green I at detecting short fragments, but 50-bp bands were clearly visible using either dye when visualized with a long integration time. SYBR ® Gold or SYBR ® Green I are sensitive and relatively safe alternatives to EB. In our laboratory, the SYBR ® Gold method is now used routinely by all members of our group with great consistency and success.
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©2005 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
