Computer program DNAOPT has been developed to provide an efficient,
reliable and fast technique for optimizing the gel conditions.  The
optimization of gel conditions of gel electrophoresis is prerequisite
for utilizing its full efficiency and sensitivity. To enhance the 
sensitivity and usable dynamic range of the gel electrophoresis, its 
mandatory to adjust the experimental conditions viz. buffer concentration, 
electric field strength, temperature, agarose concentration etc. Hyperbolic 
regression is a mathematical technique  which gives the investigator a 
quantitative analysis of the gel electrophoresis data and could be utilized 
to tune the gel conditions.

To optimize the gel conditions, the user should run the gel 
electrophoresis for different set of the gel condition, then the program 
should be used to analysis the data. The program would provide the 
relationship between gel condition and optimizing parameters which could 
be utilized to  tune the gel conditions according to the user's requirement. 
The program also compute the interpolation formula, for estimating the size 
of DNA fragments or size of proteins/peptides from agarose or SDS-PAGE
data. 

 Files contained in this package:
 
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 FILES           DESCRIPTION
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 DNAOPT.EXE     EXECUTIVE VERSION OF DNAOPT PROGRAM
 
 README.DOC      DOCUMENT FILE FOR DNAOPT PROGRAM (THIS FILE)
 
 DNA1.STD        EXAMPLE STANDARD DATA FILE
 
 DNA2.STD        EXAMPLE STANDARD DATA FILE
 
 DNA3.STD        EXAMPLE STANDARD DATA FILE
 
 DNA1.DAT        EXAMPLE DATA FILE
 
 DNA2.DAT        EXAMPLE DATA FILE

PAPER.TEX        Paper in Tex format

 dnaopt.tar       All files of package in tar format

 dnaopt.tar.uue        uuencoded dnaopt.tar file

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Users should cite the following article in any publication that made use
of this program:

Raghava, G. P. S. (1995) DNAOPT: A computer program to aid optimization of
DNA gel electrophoresis and SDS-PAGE. Biotechniques 18 (2) (in press).

 
 LICENCE:
 
 This program remains the copyright property of the Institute of
 Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, INDIA, an institution of the
 CSIR, Govt of India. This program may be freely used by anybody
 subject to the following conditions:
 
 1.   The authors nor the Institute of Microbial Technology
      Chandigarh assume any responsibility for any losses or
      damage that may be caused by the use or misuse of the
      accompanying software.
 
 2.   The authors nor the Institute of Microbial Technology 
      Chandigarh give any warranty with regards to the software
      being able to function on any computer.
 
 3.   The accompanying software may not be copied nor distributed
      with any modifications, and this document file MUST be
      included with all copies
 
 4.   No fee may be charged for the copying and/or distribution of
      the accompanying software.
 
 5.   Users must agree to accept any risk as a condition of the
      free use of the accompanying software.
 
 Any suggestion, bug report will be greatly appreciated. Please
 send them to:
 
                         G P S Raghava, Scientist
                         Computer Centre
                         Institute of Microbial Technology,
                         Sector 39A, Chandigarh 160 014,
                         India.
                         Email address: raghava@imtech.ernet.in