This might sound like a daft question, but if I was to run 1 ul of genomic DNA on a Bioanalyzer HS chip would I be able to detect sample degradation? I realise that high molecular weight genomic DNA will be far too large to be detected, but would any smaller weight 'smear' show up on the Bioanalyzer trace?
We have some insect extractions with very little DNA (~100 ng) from a whole insect. We have found running out the DNA on a gel to be quite a poor way of seeing the DNA quality - needing at least 30 ng and using Ethidium staining. While we can sometimes see the faint high molecular weight band, it is near impossible to see if there is much 'smear'. And the main problem is that we have so little DNA in the first place.
I wondered if using the Bioanalyzer may help, since it uses so little of the precious sample.
We have some insect extractions with very little DNA (~100 ng) from a whole insect. We have found running out the DNA on a gel to be quite a poor way of seeing the DNA quality - needing at least 30 ng and using Ethidium staining. While we can sometimes see the faint high molecular weight band, it is near impossible to see if there is much 'smear'. And the main problem is that we have so little DNA in the first place.
I wondered if using the Bioanalyzer may help, since it uses so little of the precious sample.
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