Theory of DNA electrophoresis: A look at some current challenges

Although electrophoresis is one of the basic methods of the modern molecula r biology laboratory, new ideas are being suggested at an accelerated rate, in large part because of the pressing demands of the biomedical community. Although we now have, at least for some methods, a fairly good theoretical understanding of the physical mechanisms that lead to the observed peak sp acings, widths and shapes, this knowledge is often too qualitative to be us ed to guide further technical developments and improvements. In this articl e, we review some selected elements of the current state of our theoretical ignorance, focusing mostly on DNA electrophoresis, and we offer several su ggestions for further theoretical investigations.