Physical markers for landmarking fluorescently stained gels that facilitate automated spot-picking

The quantitative comparison of spot patterns relies heavily on protein stai ns that do provide an appropriate dynamic range. Unfortunately most spot pi cking robot devices are still limited to nonfluorescent protein stains and the appropriate equipment is still quite expensive. These problems are solv ed by the application of a newly developed "GelMarker" that combines a spot picking robot device and a UV scanner. The "GelMarkers" are detectable in both the visible and UV range of light and permit the comparison of gel pic tures taken by such different devices. The application of these "GelMarkers " together with the transformation of spot coordinates by using a "spot mat ching" procedure allows the automated excision of selected protein spots. T he obtained picking accuracies are as good as those obtainable from visible stained gels due to the shape stability of the gels even over a longer tim e period.