Biotium has launched its new Ember500 RNA prestain loading dye. This novel prestain loading dye is much more sensitive than conventional prestaining with ethidium bromide (EtBr). In addition, it is compatible with blue LED gel imagers, unlike EtBr.
Staining for RNA is commonly done with EtBr on a denaturing gel after electrophoresis. However, denaturing gels can be complicated to prepare and involve handling hazardous reagents. RNA prestaining with EtBr can be performed with non-denaturing agarose gels, but requires large amounts of the dye and sensitivity is still severely limited.
Ember500 was developed by Biotium scientists to offer much brighter signal and higher sensitivity than EtBr for RNA gel staining. For maximum convenience, the prestain also includes formamide as well as electrophoresis tracking dyes, allowing sample denaturing, loading, tracking, and staining in a single step. In addition, it stains both RNA and DNA, allowing the detection of contaminating genomic DNA in purified RNA samples. Detection of the new dye is flexible, with compatibility for UV transilluminators and blue LED gel imagers, which eliminate UV exposure hazards.
The prestain will be supplied at a 2X concentration, for convenient loading of sample and dye in equal volumes. It will be available in 4 x 1mL and 1 x 250 uL sizes.
