FAS-V Gel Imaging System

Perfect results right out of the box
The FastGene FAS-V Gel Imaging system is the latest addition to the growing FastGene family for sensitive and safe nucleic acid detection and protein documentation. This imaging platform combines a powerful CCD camera, brilliant touch-screen display and the superior technology of ultra-bright blue and green LEDs. The aquamarine-color illumination hits the sweet spot for exciting common fluorescence DNA dyes such as EtBr and Sybr Green. You can always expect at least equivalent results as compared to UV transilluminators, but without the risk of damaging DNA or harming your skin and eyes. That’s because the lower energy photons from these LEDs will not crosslink DNA (rendering it unable to be replicated) unlike short wave UV light.

The system is designed to produce stronger signals and lower background! The huge imaging area is 26 cm x 21 cm big and has unsurpassed uniformity of lighting. 12 LED arrays illuminate from opposite sides as compared to directly shining light from below like other gel illuminators. The FAS-V was developed for use with either red dyes such as ethidium bromide (EtBr) or next generation non-carcinogenic dyes like our Midori Green or Sybr Green-based dyes.

Safe Illumination vs UV Illumination

Spectra of Ethidium Bromide and Midori Green

UV-Light: good signal, unhealthy side-effects

UV-light transilluminators use a single wavelength for the visualization of DNA. Red and green DNA dyes, such as ethidium bromide or Midori Green dyes have a good absorption in the UV-light spectrum. This results in DNA bands with sufficient intensity, however, UV-light is dangerous for the user and for the sample DNA. Just 30 seconds of UV-light exposure significantly reduces the cloning efficiency and has consequences for downstream applications. For this reason, visualization of DNA with UV-light is not the preferred method.

Blue/Green: safe and strong detection of all DNA dyes

In contrast to UV-light, Blue/Green LED technology uses a wide spectrum of light between 470 nm and 520 nm. This light is not harmful for DNA or for the user. Even ethidium bromide or other red DNA dyes with a low absorption in this spectral area show DNA band intensity comparable to UV illumination. The reason for that is the accumulated energy absorption (area under the curve) of the DNA in the Blue/Green spectrum. Green DNA dyes show very high absorption intensity in the Blue/Green light spectrum, leading to DNA bands with superior intensity.

Touch-screen operation
The FastGene FAS-V is easily controlled by a gorgeous, color 10.4″ touchscreen display. All three light sources can be activated and deactivated by the touchscreen. Additionally, the exposure time and gain can be easily adjusted.

The FAS-V system will take up to six pictures, simultaneously, using different exposure times. The user can then view and choose which one to use. Images can be captured in common TIFF, JPEG, BMP and PNG format. The files can be stored on the 16 GB internal SSD storage or using an external USB-stick.

Additionally, captured images can be directly edited right on the touch-screen allowing the following:

• Cropping the image
• Adjusting contrast
• Rotation of the image clockwise and anti-clockwise
• Vertically and horizontally mirroring of the image
• Inverting black and white

Illumination
The FAS-V system comes with three types of illumination on-board:

1) Blue/Green LED Illumination – Blue/Green LED technology enables the detection of red and green DNA dyes such as Midori Green, Sybr Green and Ethidium Bromide (EtBr). This mode is most commonly used for the detection of DNA and RNA (both single and double stranded).

2) White LED Transilluminator – The detection of proteins in a gel is possible due to powerful white LED illumination from below. This mode is compatible with common colorimetric stains such as Coomassie and silver.

3) White LED Room Light – The documentation of membranes and Petri dishes is done by switching to the “room light” LED (which illuminates from above). Two perfectly placed LED arrays light the whole imaging box. Black or white background can be chosen to increase or decrease the contrast.

Optics – No more focusing
The lens of the FAS-V is parfocal. This enables you to zoom in to the area of interest without having to readjust the focus. The 6x zoom, with a focal length of 12.5 mm to 75 mm, allows a perfect enlargement of the area of interest or viewing the entire illumination surface.

The FastGene FAS-V has a large CCD-Sensor with a diameter of 1/1.8“. Better yet, it’s made in Japan. The pixel size of 4.4 µm enables the detection of the faintest light signals. Exposure time of the sensor can be set from 0.001 sec up to 30 sec. The very short exposure guarantees that even the brightest DNA band will be still within the dynamic range. Alternatively, exposing the sensor for up to 30 sec will enable the detection even of the weakest bands.

Safer for you and better for your subcloning
By using safe MIDORI Green dyes and safe Blue/Green LED illumination you can improve your subcloning transformation efficiencies by THREE-FOLD. In the example below, a plasmid vector was double digested with suitable restriction enzymes to create two sticky-ended DNA fragments: the lacZ gene (3,536 bp) and the backbone of the vector (4,318 bp). Equal amounts of digested DNA were electrophoresed on 1% agarose gels. The gels were stained with either ethidium bromide or MIDORI Green Direct gel stain according to the corresponding manuals, and then viewed using either a UV transilluminator or the FastGene Blue/Green LED Illuminator, respectively. The two DNA fragments were excised from the gels and purified using a silica membrane based purification kit. The lacZ gene and the vector backbone were re-ligated using T4 DNA ligase transformed into DH5a cells and plated onto selection plates. The total number of blue and white colonies was counted to evaluate cloning efficiency. Each experiment was conducted in triplicate, and the average cloning efficiency was determined. MIDORI Green Direct resulted in a dramatic increase of positive transformants.

Midori Green Can Boost Your Cloning Results!

Ethidium bromide is typically used in conjunction with a strong UV light source to excise DNA bands for purification prior to the ligation reaction. Short-wavelength light is known to cause thymine dimers and damage DNA. The extent of this damage is not always appreciated. High-energy light wreaks havoc on DNA fragments in mere seconds. As can be seen below, cloning efficiency starts to drop after just a 15 second exposure of DNA in a standard agarose gel. After a 30 second exposure, your cloning experiment is all but dead! In contrast, the cloning efficiency of protocols that use blue LEDs or Nippon Genetics’ super-performing Blue/Green LEDs are completely unaffected by this deleterious effect. If your lab can’t to break itself of its ethidium bromide habit, using a Blue/Green LED Illuminator (or imaging system) should still have an immediate positive impact on DNA integrity and cloning efficiency.

UV Transilluminators Kill Cloning Experiments