I recently conducted a maxiprep of a plasmid of interest. No major issues for the majority of the prep, the only strange thing occurred after the elution when I noticed the color of the final plasmid stock was distinctly pink. Concentration and 260/280 values both looked fine, well within expectations, but the color has me a little concerned. Will this prep still be useful in cell culture transfections? What is likely to have caused this color change? For reference I am using the ZymoPure Maxiprep kit, following the protocol provided and using the vacuum manifold for binding.
something must be wrong with the kit or reagents. from which step did you notice this pink color showing up?
That is odd! I've seen pink bacteria pellets (common in Agrobacteria), but not plasmids. I've seen pigmented DNA from "dirty" preps, but that was also starting with a pigmented sample (strawberries, mangoes, salmon, etc.). When did you first see the pink color?
Any chance the tubes you eluted into had been cross-contaminated? You could try precipitating your DNA into a pellet and doing a wash with ethanol before drying and resuspending. That should wash away the pink.
"the ZymoPURE II Plasmid Maxiprep kit contains colored buffers that permit error-free visualization and identification of complete bacterial cell lysis and neutralization" (https://www.zymoresearch.com/products/zymopure-ii-plasmid-maxiprep-kit) ....
- Badges
- Science method