Smears on agarose gel, contamination? - (Sep/10/2005 )

I had smears on my agarose gel ( DNA)

what could be the reason
too much sample/contamination with RNA/
gel concentration?

what will happen if I run the gel at an increased voltage?


How to preserve the gel ?

Amty,
What kind of DNA did you load? gDNA, plasmid, PCR products, .....
And it would be helpfull if you could include a photograph of the gel.
Thanks.

iam working with genomic DNA
I would try to get the photo
thanks Theo

which one is better?(for DNA )

Staining the gel with ethidium bromide & running the gel
or
staining after running the gel?

genomic DNA will result in a big smear down the lane if there is degradation, or if it was over-pipetted or vortexed too much during extraction, causing the DNA to shear into smaller bits

i put etbr directly into the gel when pouring, you don't have to deal with sloshing hazardous waste and proper disposal is much easier...I know a gal who puts a very tiny bit into her loading dye and she says that is really the best

increased voltage is probably not going to help you. if the smear looked like a smiley face in each lane that might be your problem in the first place