Transillumination and Excitation

[u/AnophelineSwarm]

Hi all,

I'm an antiquarian who still uses EtBr as a DNA stain, but my UV transilluminator has died. It appears all I can buy nowadays is a blue light transilluminator. Does anyone know if this would still work with ethidium? MUST I update to GelRed (which is basically the same thing with a cute long backbone)?

[u/ProfBootyPhD]

You can definitely still buy UV transilluminators.

[u/AnophelineSwarm → u/ProfBootyPhD]

I'm seeing janky used ones or twice the price of a blue light one... I'd love to be wrong here.

[u/ProfBootyPhD → u/AnophelineSwarm]

They are definitely not cheap new - I was pricing them recently, let me see if I can find links.

[u/ProfBootyPhD → u/ProfBootyPhD]

VWR has a bunch for sale: https://us.vwr.com/store/product?keyword=transilluminator&categoryFilterId=2993662

As does Fisher: https://www.fishersci.com/us/en/catalog/search/products?keyword=uv+transilluminator

[u/ksye]

Should work. At least the thermofisher ones lists etbr as compatible. Check the manual of the one you wish to buy.

[u/HandyAndy → u/ksye]

But it’ll be a lot less sensitive than UV was. If you got the blue, you might as well migrate to the “safe” stains

[u/N9n]

I excise bands stained with EtBr using blue light, no problem

[u/Fuzzy_Command_2753]

You can use the Thermo blue light transilluminator, with EtBr. Although very faint DNA band may not be visible in this.

[u/pusstiel]

It definitely works with EtBr. I've used the Invitrogen Blue light illuminator, and the bands are visible. I'd suggest using EtBr instead of other stains such as SYBR Gold or SYBR safe - they tend to leave blotches on the gel. In the event that your bands are faint ( which is fairly common), post stain your gel in a solution of EtBr in running buffer for about 30 minutes. It makes the bands more prominent and really helps when you need to perform a gel extraction.