A new concept for separating nucleic acids by electrophoresis in solution using hybrid synthetic end labelled-nucleic...

Analogy between the symmetry breaking of the electrical driving force and the opposing friction force in gels using pulsed electric fields is made with the corresponding effect for polyelectrolyte coils in solution related to the molecular weight-independent charge density. The synthesis of hybrid molecules to break the symmetry of constant charge density is proposed, in which standard polypeptide end labels are attached to nucleic acid fragments. The combinatorial chemical library scheme of Brenner and Lerner (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1992, 89, 5381-5383), making use of hybrid molecules for another purpose, is mentioned, with the suggestion that for electrophoresis in solution a neutral end-labelled polypeptide chain would give the largest molecular weight and time-dependent change in the charge density for pulsed fields.