This protocol uses a spectrophotometer to quantify the amount (μg/mL) of DNA and then uses a simple equation to convert this mass concentration into a molar concentration. The molar concentration is much more useful for most enzymatic processes.
- Example: digesting 500ng of a 2KB plasmid is twice as much work as digesting 500ng of a 4KB plasmid with the same multiple cloning site.
- Dilute the DNA sample 30X by combining the following in a cuvette
- Run the DNA quantification (260/280) test on the spectrophotometer with a dilution of 30.
- Make sure that the A260 measurement is between 0.1 and 1.
- If is too low then repeat the measurement using 15X dilution.
- Calculate the molar concentration of DNA using the following equation.</br>
- Picomoles/µl = DNA Concentration(µg/ml) / [0.66*DNA Size(bp)]