Reorientation of large DNA molecules in concentrated polyacrylamide solution during crossed-field electrophoresis

Abstract

Recently, we found that, in concentrated neutral solutions, DNA molecules migrate in linear conformation under steady electric field. In this paper, we report the conformational change of DNA during 120 degree crossed-field electrophoresis in the same polymer solution. We found that, in concentrated polyacrylamide solutions, the reorientation process of DNAs becomes simple: the DNA goes back along the previous track and the reorientation time is longer for larger DNA. Such a backtrack motion has been thought to be an essential motion for the separation of DNA fragments in pulsed field gel electrophoresis. We expect that this phenomenon is useful for a more efficient separation technique of large DNAs than the current pulsed field gel electrophoresis.