In article <8b1dd6$1t6$1 at mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk>,
Sonia Lottinville <Slotti1 at uic.edu> wrote:
> Hi,
> I have to two ABI 377's and have been having a problem with consistent
> data. I recently switched to Amersco's 5.25% Gene-page and am also
using
> their TBE packets for our 48cm XL runs. Recently, my gels appear to be
> splitting up the middle (blank in the middle with samples showing up
on
> the edges) and pushing the samples out of the reading range so I
cannot
> track the gel accurately. The samples appear to be fine (the ones that
> show up). I've talked to Perkin-Elmers tech support and have perfomed
an
> acid wash on the plates. I've also used the Seque-Strip from Sigma and
> am still having problems. I was wondering if anyone else has seen this
> sort problems on their gels before?
> Thanks in advance!
> Sonia
>> ---
>>Sonia,
It could possibly be the manner in which the plates are stored after
pouring. We experienced this problem when stacking the plates, with
styrofoam blocks between, for storage. It saves storage space but the
weight of the successive plates, with the blocks in the center, caused
the plates to be more thin in the center. After storing the plates only
two high the problem was fixed.
I'm assuming the number and types of clips used are the same as before
you saw the problem.
Lastly, we have seen black areas in the middle of the gel when the
plates aren't as clean as they could be. But these areas are sporadic
and unpredicatable. If you are consistently seeing the dark areas in
exactly the same area of the gel and you have thoroughly cleaned the
plates, then I would look at how they are stored or cassetted into the
machine.
Regards,
Dan Bentley
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