DNA Staining Method Based on Formazan Precipitation Induced by Blue Light Exposure

Summary

This method allows selective staining and quantification of DNA in gels by soaking the gel in a SYBR Green I/Nitro Blue Tetrazolium solution and then exposing it to sunlight or a blue light source. This produces a visible precipitate and requires almost no equipment, making it ideal for field use.

Abstract

DNA staining methods are very important for biomedical research. We designed a simple method that allows DNA visualization to the naked eye by the formation of a colored precipitate. It works by soaking the acrylamide or agarose DNA gel in a solution of 1x (equivalent to 2.0 µM) SYBR Green I (SG I) and 0.20 mM nitro blue tetrazolium that produces a purple precipitate of formazan when exposed to sunlight or specifically blue light. Also, DNA recovery tests were performed using an ampicillin resistant plasmid in an agarose gel stained with our method. A larger number of colonies was obtained with our method than with traditional staining using SG I with ultraviolet illumination. The described method is fast, specific, and non-toxic for DNA detection, allowing visualization of biomolecules to the "naked eye" without a transilluminator, and is inexpensive and appropriate for field use. For these reasons, our new DNA staining method has potential benefits to both research and industry.

Introduction

With the advances in biochemistry and molecular biology, the studies involving DNA have required better techniques to analyze DNA. The first method for DNA staining was silver staining, which is very sensitive but lacks selectivity and does not allow sample recovery. Later, the development of fluorescent DNA staining allowed the selective quantification of DNA with the possibility of sample recovery. One of the first fluorescent dyes used for DNA quantification was ethidium bromide¹, which is mutagenic². However, now there are improved fluorescent dyes that are safer and more sensitive, such as GelRed and SYBR Green I (S....

Protocol

1. Preparing and Running the Gel

1. Prepare the non-denaturing 12% polyacrylamide gel gels using the Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) recipe found in Sambrook and Russell¹⁴ but using water instead of SDS.
   1. To prepare 5 mL of resolving gel, use 1.7 mL of distilled water, 2 mL of acrylamide/bis acrylamide (30/0.8% w/v), 1.3 mL of 1.5 M Tris pH 8.8, 0.05 mL of 10% ammonium persulfate, and 0.002 mL of TEMED.
   2. To prepare 2 mL of stacking gel use 1.5 mL of water, 0.33 mL of acrylamide/bis acrylamide (30/0.8% w/v), 0.25 mL of 1 M Tris pH 6.8, 0.02 mL of 10% ammonium persulfate, and 0.00....

Results

A purple formazan precipitate appears where the DNA is located (verified by mass spectrometry¹³). In the experiment, a DNA ladder was loaded to make a calibration curve (Figure 3). The protocol works for both acrylamide and agarose gels, but it has a lower intensity and takes a longer time in agarose. However, the use of agarose gels allows the recovery of the sample using a commercially available kit, and it does not interfere with th.......

Discussion

A sensitive and novel DNA staining method based on the reduction of NBT and the use of SG I was presented in this article. The critical step in this protocol is the incubation time of the gel in the NBT-SG I solution and the concentration of NBT. The staining time for agarose gels is longer than for acrylamide gels because of the greater thickness of agarose gels. This method does not work well in the presence of SDS as NBT precipitates in contact with it. If the gel obtains a purple background, we recommend that another.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Nitro blue tetrazolium	Gold Biotechnology	298-83-9	reagent used in the staining
SYBR Green I 10000X	Thermo-Fisher	S7563	reagent used in the staining
Gel extraction kit	QIAGEN	28704	used to extract plasmid from the gel in integrity assay
DNA ladder	Thermo-Fisher	SM 1331	used to make calibration curves and as reference to cut band in integrity assay
Agar Agar	Merck		used to make LB-ampicillin culture plates
sodium chloride	Merck	1064045000	used to make LB-ampicillin culture plates
yeast extract	Becton, Dickinson and Company	212750	used to make LB-ampicillin culture plates
peptone	Merck	72161000	used to make LB-ampicillin culture plates
TEMED	AMRESCO	761	used to make polyacrylamide gels
ammonium persulfate	Calbiochem	2310	used to make polyacrylamide gels
acrylamide	invitrogen	15512-023	used to make polyacrylamide gels
bisacrylamide	SIGMA	146072	used to make polyacrylamide gels
Tris-base	Merck	1083821000	used to make TAE buffer and non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel tris-HCl buffer
EDTA	J.T. Baker	8993-01	used to make TAE buffer
Acetic acid	Merck	1,000,632,500	used to make TAE buffer
agarose	Merck	16802	used to make TAE buffer
spectrophotometer	Tecan	infinite 200 pro	used to quantify DNA plasmid
water purificatiom unit	Merck	Elix 100	use to make water type 1 (ASTM) used in spectrophotometry and DNA dilutions\
distilled water		-	used in gels, culture medium, stainings and general solutions
HCl	J.T. Baker	9535-03	used to make non-denaturing polyacrylamide gel tris-HCl buffer
6X DNA loading dye	Thermo-Fisher	R0610
5 mm Blue LED	Jinyuan electronics	SP-021	light source used in integrity assay
protoboard	KANDH	KH102	light source support and circuit
9 V battery	Duracell	-	used to power the LED's
horizontal electrophoresis chamber	Biorad	1704486EDU	used to make and run agarose gel in integrity assay
vertical electrophoresis kit	Biorad	1658002EDU	used to run polyacrylamide gels in calibration curves
power supply	Biorad	1645050	used to power the electrophoresis