I have read up about stacking and resolving gels but i still dont understand what they are, what they do or their importance in SDS PAGE. Can someone please explain??

thank you
SA

Both Staking and separating are parts of the SDSGEL.
Usualy the Staking made of 4% gel and it is the portion in which the protein samples are loaded.
After the sample finish running this part it enters the separating part in one front. The seprating is the more important part in which the complex of proteins in the sample is separated regarding to their own molecular weight. Usually the staking gel varies in % 4 up to 16% in some case there is a gradient gel that combines % between 4 to 16.
As I mentioned at the beginning the main purpose of SDS Gel is to separate proteins according to their kDa.

Hi again,
I found an interesting article by Ed Rybicki and Maud Purves
Dept Microbiology University of Cape Town
Here is the link
http://www.mcb.uct.ac.za/sdspage.html
Hope it helped
Guy

stacking gel is used to focus the samples in all the wells into a thin band. Think of it as a race, the stacking gel is making sure all the samples are starting at the same point. I am not sure the pure chemistry of it but from a experiment standpoint, that's what the stacking gel is for.

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