A systematic study of field inversion gel electrophoresis

The mobilities of oligomers of phage lambda DNA and of yeast chromosomes in agarose gels during field inversion gel electrophoresis (FIGE) were measured at different pulse times and electric fields. Also the ratios between forward and backward pulse times and/or field gradients were varied. The problem of 'band inversion' during FIGE, leading to an ambiguity in the mobility of large DNA fragments, was solved by using two dimensional gel electrophoresis with different parameters in the first and second dimension. The results are compared with those obtained with other pulsed electrophoresis systems and with a theoretical model.