Polyacrylamide gel miniaturization improves protein visualization and autoradiographic detection.

Polyacrylamide gels shrink to one-quarter of their original area when soaked in a 50% (w/v) solution of polyethylene glycol. Gel miniaturization improves the contrast of protein bands, with four valuable consequences. (i) A 5- to 10-fold increase in sensitivity for Coomassie blue is observed. (ii) Gels are more durable; i.e., they resist tearing when wet and they do not crack during drying under vacuum. (iii) Shrunken gels give sharper photographic images and provide better interlane protein band comparisons. (iv) Condensed protein bands lead to an increased sensitivity for detecting low-abundance, radioactively-labeled proteins by fluorography.