Analysis of Two Silver Staining Procedures in Polyacrylamide Gels: Mechanism of Background Formation

Two different silver staining methods, silver nitrate or acidic methods, were employed to detect proteins in sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gels following the electrophoresis of a variety of protein samples. Differences in background intensity of silver stained gels whose components were identical suggested that the background formation was due to the conditions used in specific silver staining method. The two methods were found to have same sensitivity to detect protein in single nanogram quantity. Some unusual silver staining characteristics were analyzed.