Gel-Red is a new generation fluorescent nucleic acid dye designed to replace the highly toxic and mutagenic ethidium bromide (EB).

Gel-Red is superior to EB in noncytotoxicity, sensitivity, and stability. The nucleic acid stained by Gel-Red exhibits red fluorescence when excited by UV light at approximately 300nm, which can be examined by the gel imaging system originally used for the observation of EB.

Gel-Red generally produces smooth overall bands, but factors such as molecular weight and sample loading amount may cause band tailing, curvature, or high background. For applications requiring high band flatness, we recommend using NA-Red Plus (2000X) (D0131), which achieves near-perfect separation even for bands with high molecular weight or large loading amounts.

Gel-Red is safer than EB or SYBR Green. Gel-Red is not cytotoxic or mutagenic even at concentrations far above its working range. The Ames test also proves that the mutagenicity of Gel-Red is far less than that of EB. Gel-Red and Gel-Green have a special chemical structure that makes it difficult to enter cells, thus greatly reducing or even avoiding the mutagenicity and cytotoxicity of the dye. SYBR Green, on the other hand, can penetrate cell membranes, enter live cells and stain DNA, and has been reported to strongly enhance UV-induced mutagenesis.

Gel-Red is highly sensitive and effective for staining nucleic acids with small molecular weight. Gel-Red is 8-10 times more sensitive than EB for detecting trace amounts of DNA or RNA, and is especially sensitive for small molecular weight DNA. When staining gel after electrophoresis, Gel-Red has similar or even higher sensitivity than SYBR Gold. Different from SYBR Gold, Gel-Red is also highly sensitive when precast in a gel. The staining effect of Gel-Red of concentration recommended in this manual is slightly better than EB, and the working concentration of Gel-Red can be increased if higher sensitivity is desired.

Reuse of the gel after sample loading and electrophoresis is not recommended.

Gel-Red has good stability and high reproducibility of staining. The reproducibility of SYBR Green nucleic acid staining method is poor, usually due to the low stability of the SYBR dyes. In contrast, Gel-Red is thermostable and has strong light resistance, and thus produces nucleic acid staining results with good reproducibility.

Gel-Red can be examined with the same detection system as EB. Gel-Red has almost the same excitation and emission spectra as EB, so it can be used as a direct substitute for EB. Please refer to Figure 1 for the excitation and emission spectra of Gel-Red.

Figure 1. The excitation and emission spectra of Gel-Red

Gel-Red can be used in the same way as EB. Gel-Red can be added directly to agarose gel after melting in an appropriate proportion, or the gel can be stained after electrophoresis is completed. The former method is more convenient, while the latter is a bit more sensitive. However, since Gel-Red itself is already very sensitive, it is usually sufficient to precast it in the gel. For some special cases, such as samples with particularly small amounts of nucleic acid, gel staining after electrophoresis is recommended.

The effect of Gel-Red on the mobility of nucleic acids is very small and less than that of SYBR Green.

Gel-Red bound to DNA or RNA can be effectively removed by gel recovery kits or phenol/chloroform extraction, thus enabling the subsequent ligation, digestion, PCR, sequencing, and other routine molecular biology applications.

Packing List：

Cat. No.	Product Name	Pack Size
D0139	Gel-Red (10000X)	0.2ml
–	Information Sheet	1 copy

Storage Conditions：

Store at room temperature, stable for at least 2 years.

Precautions：

To check the quality of Gel-Red, dilute the stock to 1X with cell culture medium which is then used to stain cultured cells, followed by examination by fluorescence microscopy. High-quality Gel-Red does not stain live cells, while the counterfeit does.

The prepared agarose gel containing Gel-Red can be stored at 4ºC in the dark for 3-5 days for future use.

If the Gel-Red agarose gel will be used after melting, an appropriate amount of Gel-Red needs to be added for better observation.

Gels that are stained with Gel-Red after electrophoresis generally do not need to be decolorized prior to examination. If the background is too high, decolorization can be performed using nuclease-free water.

Gel-Red, like Gel-Green, can stain dsDNA, ssDNA and RNA.

For polyacrylamide gels, stain after electrophoresis and extend the staining time to 30 minutes – 1 hour.

If DNA smear is observed or DNA could not be separated well, we recommend gel staining after electrophoresis to determine whether the problem is due to the dye. If the problem still exists other attempts can be tried, such as using freshly prepared buffer, reducing the amount of nucleic acid loaded, reducing the concentration of dye or agarose, using a longer gel, reducing the voltage for electrophoresis and extending the electrophoresis time to improve electrophoresis.

Gel-Red is compatible with commonly used electrophoresis buffer solutions, such as TAE and TBE.

Gel-Red is not a toxic or hazardous substance and has passed environmental safety related tests. The related waste does not require special treatment and can be disposed of as conventional chemical reagents.

This product is for research use only, not for drug, clinical diagnosis, food, or other uses.

For your safety and health, please wear a lab coat and disposable gloves during the operation.

Molecular biology

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