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The use of gelatin to dry cellophane wound slab gels in an embroidering hoop

Carlos Roberto Ceron^I; João Rodrigues dos Santos^I; Hermione Elly Melara de Campos Bicudo^II

^IDepartamento de Química e Geociências
^IIDepartamento de Biologia, IBILCE-UNESP, Caixa Postal 136, 15055 São José do Rio Preto, SP, Brasil. Send correspondence to C.R.C.

ABSTRACT

Polyacrilamide gel electrophoresis is a widespread technique in population genetics and other fields of study for which an effective separation of proteins is useful. Preservation of gels long after electrophoresis is frequently desirable. Several methods for drying polyacrilamide slab gels have been described. In Maizel's method (1971, in Studier, 1973) the gels are placed on a piece of Whatman 3 MM filter paper and dried under a vacuum in a boiling water bath. Simpler methods, which do not require special apparati, have been devised by Mayer (1976) and Popescu (1983). In the latter method, the gels are transferred to a plexiglass plate and covered with a 5% aqueous solution of gelatin spread evenly over the gel surface. The gels are then air dried for 24 hours or more at room temperature. Recently, a method for drying acrylamide slab gels using acrylic frames and cellophane has been described (Krishnan and Nguyen, 1990). An advantage of this method is the use of plastic wrap on one side of the gel, which prevents it from sticking to the cellophane, making fluorography of the dried gel possible.
Several methods for drying cylindrical acrilamide gels have also been described in the literature. For example, Aono et al. (1985) developed a method for drying SDS polyacrilamide disc gels at room temperature, using commercial slab gel drying equipment.

Keywords: Gelatin; Cellophane; Gels.

REFERENCES

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