Agarose

Agarose is a polymer isolated from red seaweed, from the species Gelidium and Gracilaria, and it is commonly used for the separation of nucleic acids. Type I agarose is often utilized in molecular biology to make agarose gels for electrophoresis, a technique used to separate and analyze DNA or RNA fragments or proteins based on their size. Agarose may also be used in plant cell culture to create hydrogels, which are gel-like materials that provide a three-dimensional matrix. This provides a supportive and biocompatible environment for plant cells, this mimics physiological conditions and conducts experiments in vivo. They are versatile for various applications in plant biology, such as studying cell growth, tissue culture, and analyzing plant responses to different stimuli.

Type 1 Agarose is commonly utilized for molecular biology:

• for gel electrophoresis of DNA and RNA molecules
• for agarose overlay in cell culture, to measure antibacterial activity by radial diffusion
• for agarose overlay in cell culture for radio immunodiffusion assays to quantify antigens
• for agarose overlay in plaque assays to determine viral titer
• to prepare agarose hydrogel that encapsulates a viscous media for 3D cell culture
• as an ingredient of human-tissue-like MRI phantoms
• for diagnostic to analyze patient samples for MRSA genome using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis

The following is a list of properties associated with our agaroses:
Sulfate content - used as an indicator of purity, since sulfate is the major ionic group present.
Gel strength - the force that must be applied to a gel to cause it to fracture.
Gel point - the temperature at which an aqueous agarose solution forms a gel as it cools. Agarose solutions exhibit hysteresis in the liquid-to-gel transition - that is, their gel point is not the same as their melting temperature.
Electroendosmosis (EEO) - a movement of liquid through the gel. Anionic groups in an agarose gel are affixed to the matrix and cannot move, but dissociable counter cations can migrate toward the cathode in the matrix, giving rise to EEO. Since electrophoretic movement of biopolymers is usually toward the anode, EEO can disrupt separations because of internal convection.

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