Less toxic alternatives to ethidium bromide – novel highQu nucleic acid stains for agarose gel electrophoresis

Select the best fitting product from the guide presented bellow. Ask for a sample to try

DISCONTINUED! StainIN™ RED Nucleic Acid Stain	Staining of NA in agarose and polyacrylamide gels during electrophoresis for ssDNA, dsDNA and RNA visualization and gel documentation under the UV light. Highly sensitive NA detection - up to 2x more sensitive than EtBr.
NEW StainIN™ eco-RED Nucleic Acid Stain	The new stain is purely aqueous solution. The old StainIN™ RED had DMSO as solvent. The new stain is room temperature stable, shipped at ambient temperature. Store it at your electrophoresis bench. The old StainIN™ RED was stored at +4°C. StainIN™ eco-RED NA Stain is more flexible – detectable under both UV and LED light. More convenient protocol – the stain can be used both during the gel run and as a post-run staining. Same or better sensitivity compared to the old stain.
StainIN™ GREEN Nucleic Acid Stain	Staining of NA in agarose and polyacrylamide gels during electrophoresis for ssDNA, dsDNA and RNA visualization and gel documentation under the Blue LED light. UV detection is also possible. Highly sensitive NA detection - up to 4x more sensitive than EtBr when Blue LED is used for detection. Two emission peaks, colors DNA in green, RNA in red.

How safe are the nucleic acid stains used in agarose gel electrophoresis?

Widely used agarose gel stain ethidium bromide is a highly mutagenic and potentially carcinogenic compound. It is classified as a hazardous chemical. Luckily, much safer alternative non-toxic stains are available in the market. Such as StainIN™ GREEN NA Stain by highQu or SYBR Safe stain available from Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Usage of Agarose gel

Agarose gel electrophoresis is one of the daily basic techniques used in every molecular biology laboratory, therefore, the use of less toxic stains is largely important to minimize environmental safety concerns. All used gel staining solutions and old agarose electrophoresis gels, however, shall still be disposed with a special care, even when the safer stains such as GelRed, StainIN GREEN or Sybr Safe have been used.

Most of the DNA stains are intercalating into the DNA, or can be penetrating living cell membranes, therefore, it is advisable to autoclave the buffers and agarose gel electrophoresis that contain nucleic acid stains to eliminate the environmental risk as far as possible.

SYBR SAFE is a trademark owned by Molecular Probes, Inc.

GelRed is a registered trademark of Biotium, Inc.

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