Stains-all

Stains-all is a cationic carbocyanine dye used for differential staining of nuclei acids and proteins with RNA staining blue/purple, DNA staining blue, and proteins staining red. In addition, the dye can be prepared by dissolving Stains-All in formamide and buffer. It has been reported that Stains-all is 50 to 100% more intense than Coomassie blue in staining proteins such as Ca²⁺-binding proteins in muscle extracts. Furthermore, Stains-all is an ideal dye for the visualization and identification of proteins on polyacrylamide gels because it differentiates between highly acidic proteins which stain blue and less acidic proteins which stain pink. When employed on polyacrylamide gels, the intensity of Stains-all can be increased by the addition of silver nitrate.