GelRed^TM is an ultra sensitive, extremely stable and environmentally safe fluorescent nucleic acid dye designed to replace the highly toxic ethidium bromide (EB) for staining dsDNA, ssDNA or RNA in agarose gels or polyacrylamide gels. GelRed is far more sensitive than EB without requiring a destaining step (Figure 1). GelRed and EB have virtually the same spectra (Figure 3), so you can directly replace EB with GelRed without changing your existing imaging system.

GelRed^TM can be used to stain dsDNA, ssDNA or RNA in agarose gel via either precast or post gel staining. GelRed can also be used to stain dsDNA, ssDNA or RNA in polyacrylamide gel via post gel staining. GelRed is also compatible with downstream DNA manipulations such as digestion with a restriction enzyme, Southern blotting techniques and clonings.

A series of safety tests have confirmed that GelRed^TM is noncytotoxic, nonmutagenic and nonhazardous at concentrations well above the working concentrations used in gel staining. As a result, GelRed can be safely disposed of down the drain or in regular trash, providing convenience and reducing cost in waste disposal. For detailed test results, you may download a complete GelRed/GelGreen Safety Report here.

We offer GelRed^TM 10,000X solution in DMSO and in water (cat#41003) for better safety. For your convenience, we also offer ready-to-use GelRed^TM 3X in water (cat#41001) that can be directly used for post gel staining. For customers who look for large pack size, we offer a cost-saving bulk pack size of 10mL (cat#41003-1).

FEATURES Safer than EB Shown by the Ames test and other tests to be nonmutagenic and noncytotoxic Easy disposal Passed environmental safety tests for direct disposal down the drain or in regular trash Ultra-sensitive Much more sensitive than EtBr and SYBR Safe Extremely stable Available in water, stable at room temperature for long-term storage and microwavable

Simple to use Very simple procedures for either precast and post gel staining Perfectly compatible with a standard UV transilluminator GelRed replaces EtBr with no optical setting change; GelGreen replaces SYBR or GelStar with no optical setting change (see Figure 3) Perfectly compatible with downstream applications Compatible with downstream DNA manipulations such as digestion with a restriction enzyme, Southern blotting techniques and clonings.

The Most Sensitive and Stable Precast Gel Stain
		Figure 1.GelRedTM is significantly more sensitive than ethidium bromide (EB) for detecting low-level DNA, especially in the lower molecular weight area. Shown left are two-fold serial dilutions of 1 Kb Plus DNA Ladder from Invitrogen electrophoresed on 1% agarose gels precasted with GelRed or EB in 1x TBE. The total amount of DNA loaded per lane was: 200 ng, 100 ng, 50 ng and 25 ng from left to right. Gels were imaged using 300-nm transillumination and photographed with an EB filter and Polaroid 667 black-and-white print films.

The Most Sensitive and Stable Post Gel Stain

Figure 2. GelRedTM displays consistently superior sensitivity for post gel staining, regardless of the filter used (A vs. C) and storage and handling condition. SYBR Gold, however, showed comparable performance only when used fresh from the manufacturer and with a SYBR filter (B vs. D). Following a few freeze-thaw cycles, SYBR Gold 10,000X solution degraded significantly, resulting in poor staining (E). SYBR Gold 1X solution also degrades over time (see Figure 4). Two-fold serial dilutions of 1kb Plus DNA Ladder from Invitrogen were electrophoresed on 1% agarose gels in 1x TBE and post- stained with GelRedTMand SYBR Gold, respectively. Gels were imaged using 300-nm transillumination and photographed with the indicated filters and Polaroid black-and-white print films. The total amount of DNA per lane for each serial dilution was: 200 ng, 100 ng, 50 ng and 25 ng from left to right.

Figure 3. Excitation and emission spectra of GelRed and GelGreen in the presence of DNA in PBS buffer

Note: *GelRed and its uses are covered by pending US and international patents. **SYBR is trademark of Molecular Probes, Inc. and GelStar is trademark of FMC corporation.

Please also see our EvaGreen^TM(cat#31000), a breakthrough nucleic acid dye ideally suited for quantitative real-time PCR(qPCR). By incorporating a smart "release-on-demand" DNA-binding technology, EvaGreen^TM has low PCR inhibition while exhibiting superior sensitivity. Similar to our GelRed^TM, EvaGreen^TM has remarkable stability.