A NEW SEPARATION MEDIUM FOR DNA CAPILLARY-ELECTROPHORESIS - SELF-ASSEMBLY BEHAVIOR OF PLURONIC POLYOL E99P69E99 IN 1X TBE BUFFER

The unique sol-gel transition property of E99P69E99 (With E and P bein g poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(propylene oxide), respectively), a Plu ronic polyol F127, could become a useful separation medium in the mini aturization and automation of capillary electrophoresis (CE). Static l ight scattering (SLS), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and small-angle X-ray scattering were used to study the solution property and the gel -like structures of F127 in a CE buffer (IX TEE) for DNA separation. F 127 in the CE forms core-shell micelles with a closed-association proc ess. The critical micelle concentration (cmc) decreases and the micell ar association number increases with increasing temperature. At larger solution concentrations, small-angle X-ray scattering results showed that the gel-like structure formed by close packing of the micelles ha d a face centered cubic (fcc) lattice. In the gel-like region the asso ciation number and also the micellar size were not affected by concent ration changes. With F127 solution as a separation medium, CE could be performed successfully with a detection length of only 4 cm for separ ation of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) f ragments. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reser ved.