Home FAQs What types of gels and staining dyes can I use for NEB’s RNA Ladders?

FAQ: What types of gels and staining dyes can I use for NEB’s RNA Ladders?

A comparison of our RNA ladders, their features, and recommended gel and staining conditions are in the table below. For ladder preparation instructions, please see the specific product protocol (links in table).
 

ssRNA Ladder
(NEB #N0362)

dsRNA Ladder
(NEB #N0363)

Low Range ssRNA Ladder
(NEB #N0364)

Micro RNA Marker
(NEB #N2102)

Protocols

Link to protocol

Link to protocol

 Link to protocol  Link to protocol 

Band Sizes

9000, 7000, 5000, 3000, 2000, 1000 and 500 nt

500, 300, 150, 80, 50, 30
and 21 base pairs

1000, 500, 300, 150, 80, 50 nt

25, 21, 17 nt

Gel Type

1-2% Agarose gel
(pre-cast staining method)

Native gel
(6% Native TBE; 2% Agarose)

6% TBE-Urea

15% TBE Urea

Sample Buffer

2X RNA Loading Dye
(B0363)

Purple Loading dye (6X) (B7025) or any non-denaturing dye

2X RNA Loading Dye
(B0363)

N/A
(ready to load format)

Denaturation

70°C x 10 min

N/A

70°C x 10 min

70°C x 10 min

SYBR Gold

★★★

  

★★★

★★★

Ethidium Bromide

★★

★★★

★★

Not Recommended

SYBR Green I

Not Recommended

★★★

★

★

SYBR Green II

★★

  

★★

★★

SYBR Safe

★★

★★★

Not Recommended

Not Recommended

Red Safe

★★

Not Tested

Not Recommended

Not Recommended

Gel Red

Not Recommended

Not Tested

★

★

Gel Green

★★

Not Tested

Not Recommended

★

★★★ Optimal, recommended for this application 

★★ Works well for this application 

★ Less optimal; need to add 2-4X as much ladder to get good visualization of bands