Analysis of heat-denatured DNA using native agarose gel electrophoresis.

The use of native or neutral gels to resolve denatured DNA affords a rapid and convenient analytical method for assessing the consequences of a number of procedures employed in molecular biology research. We demonstrate that this method can be used to analyze transition melting temperature (Tm) and strand breakage in heat-denatured duplex DNA. This shows that some commonly recommended denaturation procedures can result in significant degradation of DNA and that reannealing or aggregation can occur when samples are concentrated or ionic conditions altered.