Capillary electrophoresis of a wide range of DNA fragments in a mixed solution of hydroxyethyl cellulose

Abstract

We carried out capillary electrophoresis of 0.1–10.0 kilo base pair DNA fragments in a mixed hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) polymer. The mixed HEC polymer was prepared with different molecular weights (M_w) (90k, 250k, 720k and 1300k). The effects of important parameters, including the ratio of the mixture composition and the concentration of the mixing polymer, on the separation performance were investigated. Results show that these parameters can not only shorten the migration time of DNA without great deterioration in resolution, but they can also decrease the viscosity of the polymer, and thus make it easy to fill the capillary. Finally, we separated φ×174-Hirc II digest and λ-EcoT14 I DNA digest with high resolution in the mixed HEC solution within 18 min.