Detection of subnanogram quantities of DNA and RNA on native and denaturing polyacrylamide and agarose gels by silver staining

A silver staining method is described for detecting subnanogram amounts of DNA and RNA on polyacrylamide and agarose gels. The key step for increased sensitivity and linearity is an initial soaking of the gel in a 0.1% solution of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Agarose‐containing gels can be silver stained after treatment with formaldehyde. The methods described are comparatively rapid, extremely sensitive (≅ 150 pg of DNA) and inexpensive (0.4 g of AgNo per 25 ml of slab volume).