Kd. Cole et B. Akerman, Enhanced capacity for electrophoretic capture of plasmid DNA by agarase treatment of agarose gels, BIOMACROMOL, 1(4), 2000, pp. 771-781
Agarase was used investigate the effect of increasing the number of polymer
ends on the electrophoretic trapping of circular DNA in agarose gels. The
electric field strength required to trap circular DNA was found to be the s
ame in control and treated gels, indicating the treatment did not result in
longer traps. Loading experiments indicated that treated gels had a signif
icantly higher capacity for the open circular DNA. Electrophoretic mobility
measurements using pulsed fields indicated a higher density of active trap
s for treated gels compared to controls. Linear dichroism experiments showe
d that impalement occurred by a fast and a slow process that had characteri
stic time constants in the one and tens of seconds ranges, respectively. Th
e open circular DNA was more efficiently impaled in the treated gel compare
d to the control. The considerably higher efficiency of trapping indicated
that agarase treatment increased the concentration of traps substantially.