DNA size markers are widely used in molecular biology laboratories as DNA molecular weight standards. In this paper, I report a simple and convenient method for the preparation of DNA ladders using PCR technique. DNA ladders usually range from 100 bp ...
DNA size markers are widely used in molecular biology laboratories as DNA molecular weight standards. In this paper, I report a simple and convenient method for the preparation of DNA ladders using PCR technique. DNA ladders usually range from 100 bp to 10 kb, and many such 100 bp and 1 kb DNA ladders are commercially available. Conventionally, 100 bp to 5 kb DNA fragments were amplified using standard PCR with Taq DNA polymerase, and the large DNA fragments exceeding 5 kb were amplified using long-range PCR with a special thermostable polymerase. In this study, several types of DNA ladders were prepared by mixing the amplified DNA fragments in different combinations, which can be used as DNA size standards in agarose gel electrophoresis.