HARDWARE AND A MEMORY RESIDENT PROGRAM FOR SIMULTANEOUS CONTROL AND SWITCHING OF PULSED-FIELD GEL-ELECTROPHORESIS

We describe here the automatic switching of the electric field for PFG E systems to simultaneously control at least two PFGE experiments. For this purpose an IBM interface card was designed, that demands' the ex ecution of a specially programmed service routine based on the interru ption technique. The interface card is commanded by a software program that contains a memory resident module to report the status of the el ectrophoresis. The approach also allows the construction of simpler sw itching units than those currently used. The system facilitates the st udy of DNA migration under different electrode geometries without dist urbing the computer routine tasks. The system was validated by running simultaneously Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosomes and lambda Hind I II restriction fragments in CHEF and TAFE systems.