What is the effect of ethidium bromide on DNA?

Ethidium Bromide (EtBr) is sometimes added to running buffer during the separation of DNA fragments by agarose gel electrophoresis. It is used because upon binding of the molecule to the DNA and illumination with a UV light source, the DNA banding pattern can be visualized.

Which type of mutations are caused by ethidium bromide a intercalating dye?

Mutagenic intercalating agents (e.g., ethidium bromide) can cause insertions during DNA replication. Loss of intercalating agent can result in deletion.

What mutations does ethidium bromide cause?

Ethidium bromide is genotoxic, a frame-shift mutagen and teratogen. This is fact, determined by in vitro tests on various cultured cell lines and embryo systems that showed ethidium bromide can cause things like frame-shift mutations, chromosomal recombination, arrested cell division and developmental problems.

How does ethidium bromide work?

Ethidium bromide is a DNA interchelator, inserting itself into the spaces between the base pairs of the double helix. Ethidium bromide possesses UV absorbance maxima at 300 and 360 nm. Additionally, it can absorb energy from nucleotides excited by absorbance of 260 nm radiation.

How does the intercalation of ethidium bromide affect DNA?

The intercalation may cause mutation of DNA. Ethidium bromide is thought to act as a mutagen because it intercalates double-stranded DNA (i.e. inserts itself between the strands), deforming the DNA. This could affect DNA biological processes, like DNA replication and transcription.

Is the fluorescent compound ethidium bromide a mutagen?

Ethidium bromide may be a mutagen, although this depends on the organism exposed and the circumstances of exposure. As with most fluorescent compounds, ethidium bromide is aromatic.

Which is more toxic ethidium bromide or SYBR Green I?

However, SYBR Green I was actually found to be more mutagenic than EtBr to the bacterial cells exposed to UV (which is used to visualize either dye). This may be the case for other “safer” dyes, but while mutagenic and toxicity details are available these have not been published in peer-reviewed journals.

What should I use to treat ethidium bromide before disposal?

A common practice is to treat ethidium bromide with sodium hypochlorite (bleach) before disposal. According to Lunn and Sansone, chemical degradation using bleach yields compounds which are mutagenic by the Ames test. Data are lacking on the mutagenic effects of degradation products.