Troubleshooting Faint No DNA Bands on Gel

Troubleshooting Faint or No DNA Bands on Gel

How to Troubleshoot Faint or No DNA Bands on Agarose Gel Electrophoresis 

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If you have faint or no bands on the gel you may have the following gel running or visualization problems:

• You loaded insufficient quantity or concentration of DNA on the agarose gel. The solution is to increase the concentration or amount of DNA, however do not exceed 50 ng/band.
• Your DNA may have been degraded by DNAses. Make sure you use fresh, properly stored DNA. Make sure you avoid nuclease contamination.
• Your DNA was run off the gel. If you electrophoresed your agarose gel for a long time, your bands were lost due to running off the end of the gel. To solve this, run the gel for shorter times. Also use less voltage when running and/or utilize a higher percentage agarose gel.
• You may have improperly visualized or stained your agarose gel DNA bands. Make sure you stain your gel with either ethidium bromide or SYBR dyes. Then make sure you use UV short wavelength 254 nm UV light.
• For preparative DNA gels, make sure you use a longer wavelength at 312 nm as this will minimize DNA mutation.

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