Pulsed-Field Capillary Electrophoresis Separation of Large DNA Fragments

Field-inversion capillary electrophoresis (FICE) provides many of the same benefits as the more familiar, field-inversion gel electrophoresis (FIGE). In the capillary format, field inversion allows size separation of linear dsDNA into the megabase region. Whereas FIGE separation of megabase pair (Mb) DNA takes 24 h or more, the most rapid FICE separations are complete within 4 min (1 ,2 ). As with any capillary electroseparation, the technique is rapid and provides high resolution, but is analytical scale only. Preparative scale use of capillary electrophoresis (CE) is not very practical, although apparatus capable of the collection of CE fractions have been developed (3 ).