β-Galactosidase Reporter Gene Staining Kit

β-galactosidase (β-gal) catalyzes the conversion of X-gal to galactose and 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-hydroxyindole. The functionality of β-gal is indirectly measured by the blue precipitate of dimeric 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-hydroxyindole in the presence of potassium ferricyanide or ferrocyanide. The colorimetric detection methods also use other substrates of β-gal like O-nitrophenyl-β-D-galactopyranoside (ONPG). β-gal is a cost-effective, simple and standard reporter system. The Galactosidase Reproter Gene Staining Kit provides a method for determining the percentage of cells transfected with the plasmid expressing the β-galactosidase gene, LacZ. It can also be used to visualize the specific expression of the reporter gene in tissue sections by microscopy.

β-Galactosidase Reporter Gene Staining Kit has been used for histochemical staining of animal cells or tissues such as:

• sagittal brain sections in histoenzymology
• pancreas or colon sections in β-galactosidase reporter gene assay
• mice E10.5 -11.5 embryo and embryo sections

The substrate used in this kit is X-Gal (5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl β-D-galactopyranoside) which results in an indigo blue-colored staining of transfected cells and tissues. This test provides a method for determining the percentage of transfected cells that are expressing LacZ or for microscopically visualizing reporter gene expression in tissue sections.