I recently ran digestions of a plasmid to obtain linearized and open-circular/nicked isoforms through gel extraction. On the first gel (from which I extracted the DNA from, ran this for 2 hours at 75V), the OC-pDNA band migrated farther than that of the linear-pDNA band, contrary to how these isoforms supposedly migrate through an agarose gel. (These samples were run after digest with SYBR Green I co-loaded into samples instead of stained into the agarose gel itself. I also added glycerol to the loading dye due to issues we had with the DNA not sinking into wells properly.) I used a nucleic acid purification kit to purify the isoforms from the gel, getting very high purity and an acceptable yield.

The next day, I ran these purified samples on a pre-made, EtBr-stained agarose gel (same agarose concentration) for 3 hours at 50V. The migration profile of the samples was much closer to what you would expect for OC-pDNA vs. linear-pDNA, with OC migrating slower than linear.

I was thoroughly confused by this, as I had expected that I had made an error in my digestion where my OC and linear reactions were switched. Does anyone know what could account for such a discrepancy?

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