Dark Reader and SYBR Gold Testing
The CDB Equipment Resource has a Dark Reader from Clare Chemical on loan for testing this week (April 14th – April 18th). The light box is located in 3141 MRB3 next to our new Ingenius3 Syngene gel documentation system which has longwave-UV bulbs (365 nm). Aliquots of SYBR Gold from Life Technologies were purchased and have been distributed to the labs with instructions for staining your DNA in Agarose gels.
Shortwave UV is known to nick your DNA and decrease transfection efficiency. The Dark Reader is a non-UV alternative which uses a blue light source for fluorescing the SYBR family of stains. The Dark Reader can easily be used for cutting bands out of gels without the worry of UV light on your skin or getting in your eyes. Plus, you get to wear those styling glasses cause that blue light is bright!
Ethidium bromide is a widely used carcinogen used for staining DNA in agarose gels. CDB generates over 50 gallons of solid agarose gel waste contaminated with ethium bromide annually which Vanderbilt Environmental Health must process as biohazardous waste. SYBR Gold is 25 – 100 times more sensitive than ethidium bromide, has a better signal:noise ratio than ethidium bromide, and detects dsDNA, ssDNA and RNA in native, glyoxal, formaldehyde, or urea gels. The down side to SYBR Gold is that it is only stable for long periods in anhydrous DMSO. Other manufacturers produce stains in the "SYBR-like" family. GreenGlo Safe from Denville Scientific is very inexpensive ($103.20 for 10 liters working solution) and is stable in water so there is no toxicity.
Please take some time this week to test your aliquots of SYBR Gold and the Dark Reader. I will be requesting some feedback on these product's performance.