Improved silver staining procedure for fast staining in PhastSystem Development Unit. I. Staining of sodium dodecyl sulfate gels.

A new modification of silver staining of proteins in sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gels is adapted to automated staining in PhastSystem Development Unit. The use of a reduction step, after fixation, with thiosulfate in alcoholic sodium acetate buffer results in a considerable increase in sensitivity without the need for a recycling step. The detection limit is tenfold lower than in the silver staining procedure recommended so far for PhastSystem and corresponds to 0.05-0.1 ng protein per band. Total staining time with the new procedure is 75 min.