why do you get vertical streaks in One dimension SDS PAGE??? - (Dec/03/2010 )

Hi,

I am getting a different kind of pattern in my 1D SDS gels. I get vertical streaking. Although the protein amount is less, you don't see lot of bands, because its an elution. I am attaching the gel pic also, I am wondering why do I get it . And its not that everytime I get it , its only sometimes. I 've used silver stain for staining the gel.

silver stain is very sensitive and will pick up any artifact (caused by dust, little bits of aggregated proteins, etc). this appears to be what you are seeing.

to avoid this (as much as possible) you should try to avoid dust when pouring the gel and in the apparatus, make sure nothing is growing in any of the solutions that you use to prepare the gel and buffers, and ensure that there are no aggregates in the sample when loaded (spin and pipette carefully or filter).

Thanks mdfenko .