Low cost DNA gel documentation
Equipment for DNA gel photography, such as photographing DNA gels stained with ethidium bromide (or other fluorescent dyes), doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars. These days, great pictures can be obtained with a standard digital camera and an orange filter. Here’s how.
You will need:
- A digital camera
- A Cokin orange filter 002A or similar (This does not have to fit onto the camera, a square filter will do.)
- A polystyrene ice bucket with a thick (3-5cm bottom)
- A UV transilluminator
To build it:
- Cut a hole in the bottom of the box that is big enough for the camera lens to fit into.
- Tape the filter over the hole, inside the box.
- Set the camera flash to off and the mode to black & white.
- Push the camera’s lens tube into the hole (or place the camera lens over the hole if there is no lens tube). Depending on the shape of your camera, you may have to modify the box to ensure that the camera is pointing straight into the hole.
- Place your DNA gel onto the transilluminator and put the box over the gel.
- Turn the transilluminator and the camera on. You should now be able to see the stained DNA on the gel in the viewfinder of the camera.
- To get a quality picture and good detection limits you will have to play around with the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. This will be specific to your camera, but the setting ISO 200, Shutter speed 1/3, Aperture 8.0 worked for me—so this may be a useful starting point for you.
Update: Here’s a schematic diagram that shows how the whole thing should fit together. Let me know if you have any comments or questions.
One thing to remember when imaging your gels is to minimize the time on the UV transilluminator as UV light can damage DNA and impact your downstream applications if you are cutting bands out of the gel.
For more tips, tricks, and hacks for getting your experiments done, check out the Bitesize Bio DIY in the Lab Hub.
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Hi,
I’m thinking of building this system.
Two questions.
1) Do you really need the orange filter? Why not apply the same effect in photoshop or in the camera settings? Does the filter allow using a cheaper camera or help in getting a better contrast of the bands?
2) I have inherited a very old UVP M-20 UV transilluminator. The lamps are quite clearly visible which leads to a gradient across at least part of my PCR gel.
Any suggestions for how to get rid of this cheaply?
Thanks
O
Hi Oliver,
1) Do you really need the orange filter? Why not apply the same effect in photoshop or in the camera settings? Does the filter allow using a cheaper camera or help in getting a better contrast of the bands?
Yes, absolutely !! The orange filter cuts off the UV specter that otherwise can damage your camera chip. An UV filter is also advisable. I have compared orange vs. dark yellow filter (usually used for SYBR Green I stained gels) and found that the latter work great with EtBr (better than the original orange filter). You can find various filters in ebay quite cheap.
Hi, guys. I am seriously considering making a geldoc system with blue led light. I will be using it mainly for DNA in agarose gels stained with SYBR dyes or GelGreen. There are many points to consider such as:
That is a great post- Thanks! I will definitely try it. Do you know about the new gel doc imagers that claim to be less expensive- Would love some advice if anyone has used the new one by biorad or any others.
Thanks for the posting- I am definitely going to try it! Do you used or know anything about new gel doc imagers on the market biorad’s new one that is inexpensive- or any others?
I am SO doing this tomorrow. I have never in my life found a more useful website. I would pay for this type of advice!