Performances of new sugar-bearing poly(acrylamide) copolymers as DNA sieving matrices and capillary coatings for electrophoresis

We have synthesized two new Sugar monomers, allylamine of gluconic and lact obionic acid, by opening the corresponding lactone ring with allylamine. Th ese monomers were copolymerized with acrylamide leading to formation of cop olymers with a relative molecular mass of 288 000 and 180 000 Da, respectiv ely. Double-stranded DNA fragments were separated in entangled solutions of these linear polymers in capillary electrophoresis. Resolution, peak spaci ng and peak width were the parameters taken into account to evaluate the qu ality of the separation achieved with the new polymers. This work indicates that the copolymers of acrylamide and allyl gluconic acid have a high siev ing capacity and provide a performance similar to that of hydroxyethylcellu lose (HEC) of comparable viscosity. Unlike HEC, this copolymer self coats o nto the capillary wall, allowing DNA fragments to be efficiently separated in an uncoated capillary.