In molecular biology, it is used in agarose electrophoresis typically for the separation of nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA.
[1] It is made up of Tris-acetate buffer, usually at pH 8.3, and EDTA, which sequesters divalent cations.
[3] Its use in denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis methods for broad-range mutation analysis has also been described.
[5] However, high concentrations of sodium chloride (and many other salts) in a DNA sample retard its mobility.
A 50× stock solution can be prepared by dissolving 242 g Tris base in water, adding 57.1 ml glacial acetic acid, and 100 ml of 500 mM EDTA (pH 8.0) solution, and bringing the final volume up to 1 litre.