Agaroses
Agarose gel electrophoresis remains the most widely used technique for separating nucleic acid fragments after restriction enzymes digestion or PCR. Agarose applications take advantage of the unique macroreticular gel characteristic that acts as a sieve or support through which proteins or nucleic acids can pass. Agarose is used in the following applications: Electrophoresis, Immunodiffusion, Gel Chromatography, Affinity Chromatography, and Ion-Exchange Chromatography.
It`s is a nontoxic simple technique that offers a broad separation range. The size of the gel pores can be controlled by adjusting the agarose concentration to prepare gels appropriate for the separation of a wide range of different-size nucleic acid molecules.
The migration of nucleic acids in agarose gels is also affected by the choice of running buffer and the applied voltage.