title: Low-cost, high-sensitivity laser-induced fluorescence detection for DNA sequencing by capillary gel electrophoresis.
abstract: A low cost, 0.75-mW helium neon laser, operating in the green region at 534.5 nm, is used to excite fluorescence from tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate-labelled DNA fragments that have been separated by capillary gel electrophoresis. The detection limit (3 sigma) for the dye is 500 ymol [1 yoctomole (1 ymol) = 10(-24) mol] or 300 analyte molecules in capillary zone electrophoresis; the detection limit for labeled primer separated by capillary gel electrophoresis is 2 zmol [1 zeptomole (1 zmol) = 10(-21) mol]. The Richardson-Tabor peak-height encoded sequencing technique is used to prepare DNA sequencing samples. In 6% T, 5% C acrylamide, 7 M urea gels, sequencing rates of 300 bases/hour are produced at an electric field strength of 200 V/cm; unfortunately, the data are plagued by compressions. These compressions are eliminated with addition of 20% formamide to the sequencing gel; the gel runs slowly and sequencing data are generated at a rate of about 70 bases/hour.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
authors.forename: D Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Swerdlow
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Harke
authors.forename: J Z
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Dovichi
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis*; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel / Q000379:methods*; D005453:Fluorescence; D007834:Lasers; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data
chemical_list: D004247:DNA