title: Quantitative gel electrophoresis of DNA: resolution of overlapping bands of restriction endonuclease digests.
abstract: Accurate quantitation of the distribution of DNA digested to completion by a restriction endonuclease and separated in an electrophoretic gel is greatly facilitated by electronic imaging systems employing charge-coupled device detectors. Such quantitation permits the extraction of more accurate values of the lengths of both the parent molecular species and the fragments produced by a restriction endonuclease. We describe a method that determines the number of components in bands containing two or more daughter fragments that are of similar length and hence not resolved by gel electrophoresis. We also report a constrained deconvolution procedure based on the equal number of daughter molecules in a terminal digestion by a restriction endonuclease that resolves the distribution of each of the overlapping species in a composite band on a gel and hence increases the accuracy of the lengths assigned to each.
authors.affiliation: Biology Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Sutherland
mesh_terms: D002138:Calibration; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism*; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel / Q000379:methods*; D004996:Ethidium; D005453:Fluorescence; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes; D004996:Ethidium