Merck, E9379-5G, Stains-All

Application
Stains-All has been used for the staining of gel made for size determination of hyaluronan. It has also been used for the staining of DNA oligonucleotides separated by nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.
Biochem/physiol Actions
Stains-All is a cationic carbocyanine dye and is a multipurpose dye. It stains sialoglycoproteins blue, Ca²⁺ binding proteins deep blue to violet, proteins red and lipids yellow-orange. It also stains RNA (bluish purple) and DNA (blue).

As little as 3 ng (123 BP fragment) of pBR322/Hae III digest DNA and 90 ng tRNA can be detected on a polyacrylamide gel. PAGE gels are stained in the dark and then destaining by removing the gel from the staining solution and exposing it to the light from a light box until sufficient destaining has occurred. A staining solution is typically made by dissolving the dye in formamide and buffer.
Disclaimer
Upon continued exposure to light the nucleic acid-dye complex will fade and disappear.