EDTA concentration - (Aug/22/2013 )

Dear all,

would I have a problem if the final concentration of EDTA in my 0,5X TBE electrophoresis buffer is 0,83 mM instead of 1 mM? And if anyone knows, what is the optimum maximum and minimum EDTA concentration and why?

As a fan of lithium borate buffer I'd say you have no problem at all, as EDTA seems mostly needless....Anyway you have surely slightly different running conditions, as the ionic strength is different...less heat for example and different running speed, but no idea if this is noticeable.

Read e.g. this paper:

Sodium boric acid: a tris-free, cooler conductive medium for DNA electrophoresis. Biotechniques 36(2):214-215.

To quote:

"Another component of  currently used buffers, EDTA, is now  largely superfluous, since most DNA samples are readily soluble and since commonly used enzymes today would not carry an undesirable enzymatic activity under electrophoretic conditions."

Thank you for your help hobglobin, I will definitely look into the article you sent!