Finding a universal low‐viscosity polymer for DNA separation

We have investigated the viscosity of different commercially available polymers in solution and found that dextran has a low viscosity compared to other polymers of comparable molecular weight and resolving power. This makes it a potentially useful matrix for DNA separation in capillary electrophoresis, where either short time or low pressure are preferred for matrix replacement. We showed that dextran performs well for the separation of oligonucleotides and double-stranded DNA fragments. Together with the well-known application for protein separation, this makes dextran a universal polymer for the separation of biological macromolecules.