Silver based staining of polypeptides

The individual steps required for this ultrasensitive stain are summarized in Table 

The described procedure is the only one that gives a variety of colors which may help the identification of polypeptides separated. It has, however, to be noted that some colors are dependent on the protein concentration. Comparison of the results of different variations of the silver stain method [225,226] and other staining procedures [227,228] proved that the method of Oakley et al. [227] is simple and quickly performed. In the Sammons procedures [224] (see above) the washing steps are rather time consuming but offer superior results. The most complicated procedure is that of Switzer et al. [225]. It must also be noted that the methods of Oakley et al. [227] and Switzer et al. [225] require ammoniacal silver solution which is more difficult to handle than silver nitrate. Also the above described method is the only one that allows more than one gel to be stained at once in the same tray. 

The silver stain that was developed for staining proteins on polyacrylamide gels can also be used for detecting DNA with a sensitivity of 1 jag ( 0.03 jag/mm ) this is superior to ethidium bromide [229]. 

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