Modification of a discontinuous and highly porous sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel system for minigel electrophoresis.

A highly porous and efficient discontinuous sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis system was recently described by J. P. Doucet and J. M. Trifaró [1988) Anal. Biochem. 168, 265-271). The system was developed to separate with high and broad resolution the components from large volume samples after an overnight electrophoresis. This system was found to have many advantages. However, when used directly as a minigel system, this method cannot sustain the high voltage inherent to minigel electrophoresis and produces artefacts, namely a double front and a loss of resolution in the low molecular weight range. These problems were eliminated using the buffer system of M. A. Porzio and A.M. Pearson [1977) Biochem. Biophys. Acta 490, 27-34) in the separating gel and in the electrode chambers. The resulting modified discontinuous minigel system has the same advantages as the technique described for large slab gel electrophoresis, including the effective and rapid transfer of high molecular weight proteins to nitrocellulose membranes, as well as the advantages of the minigel format.