PAGE is used for various samples. For biochemists, SDS-PAGE is used to separate proteins. My question is about the concentration of PAGE. What is threshold concentration of acrylamide for polymerization?
The choice of acrylamide gel conc. is critical for optimal separation of protein by electrophoresis and this choice is also dependent on the size of the protein to be separated.However, the gel conc. of protein less than 3% is almost fluid and its very difficult to handle.
SDS-PAGE can be performed at very low %T, if the gel is strengthened with agarose (doi:10.1006/abio.1995.1004). Agarose forms very large pores that allow separation of whole virus. It does not influence separation of proteins up to several MDa, but stabilises the acrylamide gel, which would otherwise be difficult to handle below 5% or so.