analysis of PCR products

For analysis of PCR products below 1000 bp, polyacrylamide
gel electrophoresis is often used, which allows separation of
DNA molecules that differ from each other in size by only a
single base. The DNA can be detected in the gel by a variety of
methods including ethidium bromide staining and silver
staining however, many laboratories now use fluorescently
tagged primers to generate labelled PCR products that can be
visualised by laser-induced fluorescence. It is this technology
that has been developed into the high-throughput DNA
sequencing instruments that have been the workhorses of the
Human Genome Sequencing Project.