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What does EDTA do in agarose gel electrophoresis?
Posted May 18, 2020
Chemical ReagentsAgarose gel electrophoresisChelatorEDTAGel Electrophoresisbuffer
Answer

EDTA is predominantly used for the chelation of divalent ions, such as calcium and magnesium ions. In agarose gel electrophoresis, EDTA is added in buffer for chelating the magnesium ions which are cofactors for DNA nucleases. Hence, activity of DNA nucleases that may be present is inhibited, and DNA is protected from degrading by DNA nucleases.

Additional resources
Gelite™ Green Nucleic Acid Gel Staining Kit Gelite™ Orange Nucleic Acid Gel Staining KitEDTA, AM ester Modification of gel architecture and TBE/TAE buffer composition to minimize heating during agarose gel electrophoresis

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