An exactly solvable Ogston model of gel electrophoresis IV: sieving through periodic three-dimensional gels.
In this article, we extend our recently developed lattice model of gel electrophoresis to periodic three-dimensional gels made of either isolated obstacles or infinitely long fibers. Exact mobilities are calculated using a much improved numerical method that allows us to treat very large systems. A comparison of the exact mobilities and free available volumes indicates that the main assumption of the Ogston-Morris-Rodbard-Chrambach model (OMRCM), which postulates that the mobility (mu) of charged particles is directly related to the fractional gel volume available to them, is not valid. However, a study of the gel concentration and analyte size dependence of the zero-field mobility indicates that the OMRCM and the Ferguson plots can indeed be used to obtain useful, semi-quantitative information about the gel properties. A procedure to study more realistic three-dimensional gel systems is discussed.
Department of Physics, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
J F
JF
Mercier
G W
GW
Slater
D000465:Algorithms; D004586:Electrophoresis / Q000379:methods*; D005782:Gels; D008958:Models, Molecular
D005782:Gels