Failed Gels with Multiple Symptoms
Multiple symptoms – example 1
Many times the gels you run will have a variety
of symptoms. Since the object of a critique is
to improve your work, it is important to determine
what caused the undesirable effects. Then you can
take steps to improve the quality of your gels.
This one has no dye front - electrophoresis was
terminated too late. Bands are crooked - the top
of the resolving gel was uneven, most likely due
to failure to use a properly overlay. On the right
side, samples were overloaded.
Multiple symptoms – example 2
This gel shows some field effects (curvature -
lanes are not straight). There is some overloading,
and some bands are crooked due to an uneven resolving
gel surface.
Multiple symptoms – example 3
Uneven loading (different amounts in adjacent
wells) has caused some compression in the standards
lane. There are tears in the gel and discoloration
throughout. This indicates that it was not properly
handled - handling a gel with bare hands leaves
protein on the surface that stains with Coomassie.
Sometimes you get very nice fingerprints.
|