Basics of quantitative polymerase chain reaction: 2. Electrophoresis and quantitation of polymerase chain reaction products.

The performance of agarose and polyacrylamide (PAGE) gels in quantitating polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified c-erbB2 and p53 gene sequences (213 and 133 base pairs, respectively) was studied by applying image analysis on photographed ethidium bromide stained gels. The 5 mm thick agarose gels were more insensitive than the 1 mm thin PAGE gels and already started to show saturation effects within a narrow concentration range. The explanation is the greater dilution of band-associated products within the volume of the gel and the inefficient penetration of exciting UV light through the gel. Such effects produced inconsistency and dramatic variations in the band ratio estimates. In the system used by us, agarose electrophoresis and also electrophoresis using 5 mm thick PAGE gels have only a limited value in quantitation of PCR products with the band density ratios, but both can be used well in qualitative work. The far thinner (1 mm) PAGE gels, which did not markedly absorb UV light, performed better in the light of band density ratio estimates. The linear or approximately linear range of concentrations was wider. The coefficient of variation of band ratio, when estimated from the same gels, after loading them with aliquots of identical DNA from several PCR amplified tubes, was in the range of 4%. The absolute values of band densities had a more remarkable variation (than 4%) in both agarose and PAGE gels. Our recommendation is that quantitation of PCR products be done with band density ratio estimates, and in thin PAGE gels.