Linear Ferguson plots of polystyrene sulfate size standards for the quantitative agarose gel electrophoresis of subcellular particles.

Abstract

Accurately standardized commercial polystyrene sulfate particles in agarose gel electrophoresis yield linear Ferguson plots at pH 7.4 over a gel concentration range up to 0.9% agarose which do not exhibit any significant sigmoidal curve elements, using either a discontinuous buffer system or a continuous buffer. Ferguson plots of these standard-sized particles were evaluated using alternatively a linear or convex model, by means of a newly developed set of programs (to be used in conjunction with program M-LAB) which (i) is sufficiently user-friendly to allow for quantitative agarose gel electrophoresis of subcellular-sized spherical particles based on their convex Ferguson plots with the same operational simplicity previously available for linear Ferguson plots only; (ii) simultaneously and interactively analyzes the Ferguson plots of all particles under consideration on the basis of an extended Ogston model.