Figure 2

DNA integrity and size range as assessed by agarose gel electrophoresis. (A) DNA size markers used to estimate size ranges are shown in addition to genomic DNA that was isolated from white blood cells (WBC) and used as a positive control. (B) Representative DBS from each of the tested protocols are shown, except for protocol QQ in which DNA amounts were insufficient to be analyzed by gel electrophoresis. Eight different gel sections are shown and are derived from either the same gel or different gels. In each section, two punches from the same NCS spot were run on the same gel, with the first punch, labeled ‘a’, representing protocol GQ and the second punch, labeled ‘b’, representing another unique protocol from the tested set. The two blue lines, representing the 100 and 1000 base pair (bp) size ranges, were set according to the molecular size marker used in each section. The 1000 base pair limit is a minimum size range with useful applications in many genetic and epigenetic studies, including Illumina’s HM450 Beadchip array. The results of other DBS analyzed by gel electrophoresis or bioanalyzer are summarized in Table 6.