Robust Field Inversion Capillary Electrophoretic Separation of Long DNA Fragments

Electrophoretic analysis of DNA samples is a routine method in biochemistry and molecular biology. Conventional DNA separations in agarose gels are restricted up to a size of about 10 kbp. The reason for this restriction is the molecular orientation of large DNA fragments under the action of an electric field as proven by theoretical considerations (1 –3 ) and experimental studies (4 ,5 ). At a large molecular weight and/or strong electric fields the velocity of an oriented DNA chain becomes size-independent and the oriented DNA molecules of different size cannot be separated in continuous field gel electrophoresis.