Rapid and quantitative recovery of DNA fragments from gels by displacement electrophoresis (isotachophoresis)

Abstract

The use of displacement electrophoresis (synonymous to isotachophoresis, steady-state stacking, and moving boundary electrophoresis) for recovery of DNA fragments from agarose and polyacrylamide gels is described. Complete recovery of DNA molecules ranging from oligonucleotides to 20 000-basepairs-long fragments was achieved. The DNA is recovered in a small volume (0.1-0.3 ml) and can be used directly in enzyme-mediated cleavage and ligation reactions. The recovered DNA contained no inhibitory contaminants as revealed by ligation or restriction enzyme cleavage.