title: Development of polyacrylamide gels that improve the separation of proteins and their detection by silver staining.
abstract: Background staining that is associated with silver detection of proteins and nucleic acids in polyacrylamide gels has been shown to be due mostly to the amide groups in methylenebisacrylamide, a commonly used gel crosslinker. In attempts to reduce this background staining, eight existing crosslinking agents were tested. All of these proved to be unsuitable. Six new crosslinking agents were synthesized and tested. Of these, diacrylylpiperazine provided increased physical strength, improved electrophoretic separation of proteins, and silver staining detection of proteins with reduced background stain.
authors.affiliation: Biochemical Genetics Section, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
authors.forename: D F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Hochstrasser
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Patchornik
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Merril
mesh_terms: D000178:Acrylamides; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel / Q000295:instrumentation*; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D011506:Proteins / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012834:Silver
chemical_list: D000178:Acrylamides; D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D007202:Indicators and Reagents; D011506:Proteins; D012834:Silver; C021221:N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide