title: Anion-exchange chromatography of DNA restriction fragments.
abstract: The abilities of several high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) anion-exchange packings to separate DNA restriction fragments, ranging in size from 50 to 23,000 base pairs, were studied. The ion exchangers investigated include the porous packings Protein-Pak DEAE-5PW, Nucleogen-DEAE 4000-7, Poros-Q and BakerBond WP-PEI, and the non-porous packings TSK Gel DEAE-NPR, Gen-Pak FAX, and ProPac PA1. The results indicated that the non-porous packings could separate all 18 fragments (less than 600 base pairs) in a pBR322 DNA-HaeIII digest, while of the porous packings, only Nucleogen-DEAE 4000-7 could resolve DNA fragments in this size range. Only Gen-Pak FAX and TSK Gel DEAE-NPR could significantly resolve the very large DNA fragments (125-23,000 base pairs) of a lambda DNA-HindIII digest. The chromatographic parameters governing this separation by Gen-Pak FAX were optimized so that six of eight fragments were resolved. Split-peak phenomena were observed at low flow-rates when employing non-poros packings, but were eliminated by the incorporation of organic modifiers or surfactants, suggesting that, under certain conditions, hydrophobicity may play a significant role in separations on this packing. Gen-Pak FAX also separated 21 of 23 fragments in a 1000-base pair DNA ladder, a performance which, in addition to the quantitative capabilities of HPLC, makes anion-exchange chromatography a powerful method complementary to slab-gel electrophoresis, and perhaps preferable over agarose gel electrophoresis for applications such as the confirmation of plasmid integrity.
authors.affiliation: Eli Lilly and Company, Lilly Research Laboratories, Indianapolis, IN 46285.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Strege
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Lagu
mesh_terms: D001482:Base Composition; D002852:Chromatography, Ion Exchange / Q000379:methods*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000737:chemistry; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000032:analysis*; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D010446:Peptide Fragments