Agarose gel preparation
Agarose to weigh for a gel, and which percentage resolves your fragment.
1% is 1 g in 100 mL.
TAE or TBE, as the gel is cast in.
Checks the percentage suits it.
Agarose to weigh
Into 100 mL of buffer, for a 1% gel.
What each percentage resolves
- 0.5%1,000 – 30,000 bp
- 0.7%800 – 12,000 bp
- 1.0% — yours500 – 10,000 bp
- 1.2%400 – 7,000 bp
- 1.5%200 – 3,000 bp
- 2.0%50 – 2,000 bp
The bounds are where resolution starts to fail, not hard limits. A fragment just outside still runs; it stops being distinguishable from its neighbours.
mass = percentage (w/v) × volume; 1% w/v = 10 g/L- Agarose percentage and the fragment range it resolves — Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2012
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TBE resolves small fragments better and buffers longer; TAE is kinder to DNA you intend to extract from the gel, since borate inhibits several enzymes. Dissolve fully before pouring — undissolved grains scatter light and read as bands — and add stain once the gel has cooled below about 60 °C.
About this tool
Weigh the agarose for a gel of a given percentage and volume, and check that the percentage suits what you are trying to separate. The second half is the useful one: the working range of each percentage is a table nobody has to hand, and running a 500 bp product on a 0.7% gel costs an afternoon.
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Science last reviewed .