Agarose gel electrophoresis system for the separation of antibiotics used in animal agriculture

Abstract

A novel electrophoresis system using agarose gel has been developed for the separation and as an aid in the classification of antibiotics. This system utilizes Nunc cell factory disposable tissue culture dishes, which serve as bioassay dish and cooling chamber for agarose gel, in a custom designed electrophoresis unit. Tris(hydroxymethyl) methylamine–succinate buffer at pH 6.0 and 8.0 are employed as the electrolyte for electrophoresis. Bioautography was used as the indicator of mobility. Any agar diffusion assay can be modified to use this system. A suggested name for this system is Nunc cell factory agarose gel electrophoresis (NUAGE). Selected antibiotics, representative of the aminoglycoside, β-lactam, macrolide, moenocinol, peptide, polyene, polyether, quinone and tetracycline classes, were separated with this system.