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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

A Fast Silver Staining Protocol Enabling Simple and Efficient Detection of SSR Markers using a Non-denaturing Polyacrylamide Gel
Published on: April 20, 2018
Improved conditions for silver-ammonia staining of DNA in polyacrylamide gel
Wei-Tao Cong1, Hong-Zhang He, Zhong-Xin Zhu
1Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Biopharmaceuticals, Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, PR China.
Abstract:
An improved silver-ammonia staining method for DNA on polyacrylamide gels is described. In this method, staining of DNA using silver-ammonia complex allows high sensitivity, low cost, low toxicity, and simple protocol without requiring fixation and sensitization steps. The protocol takes less than 40 min to complete, with a detection limit of 1.5 pg of single DNA band on polyacrylamide gels, approximately 30-fold higher than that of original silver-ammonia staining method. Furthermore, this novel technique not only exhibits high sensitivity for large DNA fragment, but also shows a better trend to detect low-base-pair DNA compared with other silver staining methods.
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