Skip to Content
Merck
All Photos(3)

Key Documents

A0701

Sigma-Aldrich

Agarose, low gelling temperature

Type VII-A

Synonym(s):

2-Hydroxyethyl agarose

Sign Into View Organizational & Contract Pricing


About This Item

CAS Number:
MDL number:
UNSPSC Code:
41105317
NACRES:
NA.21

type

Type VII-A

Quality Level

form

powder

technique(s)

electrophoresis: suitable

impurities

≤7% water

ash

≤0.4%

turbidity

≤4 NTU (1.5% gel)

EEO

≤0.12

mp

65 °C±1 °C

transition temp

gel point 26 °C ±2 °C (1.5% gel)

gel strength

≥250 g/cm2 (1% gel)

anion traces

sulfate (SO42-): ≤0.4%

General description

Agarose is a polymer extracted from agar or agar-bearing marine algae. This purified linear galactan hydrocolloid comprises alternating co-polymers D-galactose and 3,6-anhydro-L-galactopyranose units connected by α-(1→3) and β-(1→4) glycosidic bonds. Agarose is highly biocompatible due to its variable mechanical and diffusion properties.

Application

Excellent for in-gel enzymatic reactions and cloning assays and for recovery of heat-labile samples after electrophoresis
Agarose has been used:
  • to encapsulate Escherichia coli on a hydrogel in tissue culture
  • to entrap Aliivibrio fischeri on a disposable card involved in designing of toxicity biosensors
  • as a the dispersed phase of emulsion during preparation agar beads

Biochem/physiol Actions

Agarose can be used as a gelling agent, to separate nucleic acids electrophoretically because its gels have larger pore sizes than polyacrylamide gels at low concentrations. Unlike polyacrylamide, the consistency of the gels is more solid (but also less elastic) It is also employed to determine cross reaction in immunoelectrophoresis (IEP) and Ouchterlony (double diffusion) plates in which antibody-antigen precipitin lines are studied. Agarose is used to make gel plates or overlays for cells in tissue culture. In addition, it is also used to form a gel matrix (either beaded and/or crosslinked) which can be used in chromatographic separations.

Analysis Note

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.

Recommended products

Discover LiChropur reagents ideal for HPLC or LC-MS analysis

Storage Class Code

11 - Combustible Solids

WGK

WGK 3

Flash Point(F)

Not applicable

Flash Point(C)

Not applicable

Personal Protective Equipment

dust mask type N95 (US), Eyeshields, Gloves

Choose from one of the most recent versions:

Certificates of Analysis (COA)

Lot/Batch Number

Don't see the Right Version?

If you require a particular version, you can look up a specific certificate by the Lot or Batch number.

Already Own This Product?

Find documentation for the products that you have recently purchased in the Document Library.

Visit the Document Library

Design of a toxicity biosensor based on Aliivibrio fischeri entrapped in a disposable card
Jouanneau, S, et al.
Environmental Science and Pollution Research International, 23(5), 4340-4345 (2016)
Mahmoud Affi et al.
Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry, 408(30), 8761-8770 (2016-04-05)
Water quality and water management are worldwide issues. The analysis of pollutants and in particular, heavy metals, is generally conducted by sensitive but expensive physicochemical methods. Other alternative methods of analysis, such as microbial biosensors, have been developed for their
Mostafa Ghannad-Rezaie et al.
Nature communications, 10(1), 2620-2620 (2019-06-15)
Conventional drug screens and treatments often ignore the underlying complexity of brain network dysfunctions, resulting in suboptimal outcomes. Here we ask whether we can correct abnormal functional connectivity of the entire brain by identifying and combining multiple neuromodulators that perturb connectivity
Gregory J Anthony et al.
Physics in medicine and biology, 64(9), 095023-095023 (2019-03-29)
Histotripsy is a therapeutic ultrasound modality under development to liquefy tissue mechanically via bubble clouds. Image guidance of histotripsy requires both quantification of the bubble cloud activity and accurate delineation of the treatment zone. In this study, magnetic resonance (MR)
Spencer S Gang et al.
PLoS pathogens, 13(10), e1006675-e1006675 (2017-10-11)
Parasitic nematodes infect over 1 billion people worldwide and cause some of the most common neglected tropical diseases. Despite their prevalence, our understanding of the biology of parasitic nematodes has been limited by the lack of tools for genetic intervention.

Our team of scientists has experience in all areas of research including Life Science, Material Science, Chemical Synthesis, Chromatography, Analytical and many others.

Contact Technical Service