Stains-all

Stains-all is a carbocyanine dye, which stains anionic proteins, nucleic acids, anionic polysaccharides and other anionic molecules. Stains-all is metachromatic and changes its color dependent on its contact to other molecules. The detection limit for phosphoproteins is below 1ng after one hour of staining, for anionic polysaccharides between 10 and 500ng. Highly anionic proteins are stained blue, proteoglycans purple and anionic proteins pink. RNA is stained blueish-purple with a detection limit of 90ng and DNA is stained blue with a detection limit of 3ng. Stains-all is light sensitive, therefore the staining is performed in the absence of light and photographed immediately. Staining of proteins can be improved by a subsequent silver stain. Stains-all stains nucleic acids, anionic proteins, anionic polysaccharides such as alginate and pectinate, hyaluronic acid and dermatan sulfate, heparin, heparan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate. Stains-all is an ideal dye for the visualization and identification of proteins on polyacrylamide gels because it differentiates between highly acidic proteins which stain blue and less acidic proteins which stain pink. It is used in SDS-PAGE, agarose gel electrophoresis and histologic staining. A staining solution is typically made by dissolving the dye in formamide and buffer. Spectral data: λex 573nm; λem 609nm.