To faciliatate the trasfer of DNA to a membrane during the southern Blot procedure, the gel is usually treated with

a) Tris, NaCl
b) HCl
c) NaOH
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
f) Some, but not all of the above

Is It just HCl??

Question

To faciliatate the trasfer of DNA to a membrane during the southern Blot procedure, the gel is usually treated with

a) Tris, NaCl
b) HCl
c) NaOH
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
f) Some, but not all of the above

Is It just HCl??

anonymous · Answer

This question takes me back a bit. The technique can use both HCl and NaOH - firstly the gel was treated with the acid to depurinate the DNA and increase the rate of transfer. However I used to skip this step and just use alkaline transfer - that is to transfer a gel that had been treated with NaOH. The addition of salt is useful for this process because it helps keep the strands apart by neutralizing the negative charge on the backbone phosphates. I seem to remember Tris is used too so the overall answer is "some of the above"

anonymous · Answer

Ahhh makes sense. Thank you!

anonymous · Answer

There was a similar question to this asking if a Weak acid, a weak base or a buffer solution did the job. From those options given it would be a weak acid right?