Fast slab gel electrophoretic separation of DNA fragments with a short migration distance using thermal lens microscope

We demonstrated fast separation of DNA fragments in a short slab gel throug h the minimization of band-broadening. A discontinuous buffer system was us ed to reduce band-broadening from sample introduction, and a high spatial r esolution thermal lens microscope (TLM) was used to reduce such an effect f rom the detector. Bands of DNA fragments were sharpened into 100 mu m, whic h was about 1/10 of the bandwidths in conventional continuous slab gel elec trophoresis. The 100 base pair ladder DNA sample, which ranges from 100 bp to 2000 bp, was completely separated within 15 min with a migration distanc e of 18 mm and was detected by TLM after silver staining. These results sug gested the possibility of fast separation of DNA fragments in a miniaturize d discontinuous slab gel. As well as the inherent properties of parallel se paration of slab gel, high throughput separation can be obtained, which is significant for DNA analyses such as DNA sequencing, genetic diagnosis and forensic identification analyses.