Separation of polynucleotides is a focus of scientific interest, and numerous researchers have been attempting to achieve technical improvements in various aspects of polynucleotide separation. Anion exchange separation and reverse phase ion pair chromatography are among the most frequently used methods for separating polynucleotides.
Previous work has focused on developing rapid, high resolution separations, developing separations based on the size of the polynucleotide fragment rather than the base sequence of the fragment, and on developing the ability to collect fractions of polynucleotides.
W. Bloch (European patent publication No. EP 0 507 591 A2) demonstrated that, to a certain extent, length-relevant separation of polynucleotide fragments was possible on nonporous anion exchangers with tetramethylammonium chloride (TMAC) containing mobile phases. Y. Ohimya et al. (Anal Biochem., 189:126-130 (1990)) disclosed a method for separating polynucleotide fragments on anion exchange material carrying trimethylammonium groups. Anion exchangers with diethylaminoethyl groups were used by Y. Kato et al. to separate polynucleotide fragments (J. Chromatogr., 478:264 (1989)).
An important disadvantage of anion exchange separations of double-stranded polynucleotides is the differing retention behavior of GC- and AT-base pairs. This effect makes separation according to molecular size impossible. Another important drawback of the anion exchange methodology is the necessity to use salts and buffers for elution, thus making subsequent investigation of the polynucleotide molecule fractions very difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,236 (1996) to Bonn et al. describes a method for separating polynucleotides using what was characterized as reverse phase ion pair chromatography (RPIPC) utilizing columns filled with nonporous polymeric beads. High resolution, rapid separations were achieved using an ion-pairing reagent, triethylammonium acetate, and acetonitrile/water reagent mobile phase gradient. This work is important because it is the first separation to give size-dependent, sequence-independent separation of double-stranded polynucleotides by chromatography. These separations are comparable to gel electrophoresis-compatible separations, currently the most widely used technology for polynucleotide separations. Bonn's work makes it possible to automate separations based on the size or on the polarity of polynucleotides.
In the course of our work on separation of polynucleotides using the method developed by Bonn et al., with HPLC instrumentation and columns as described by Bonn, we discovered a degradation effect on the separation of double-stranded polynucleotides after long-term column usage (i.e., greater than about 50 injections). This degradation effect has been generally observed as a loss of resolution for base pairs greater than 200, as illustrated in the chromatogram of FIG. 1. As the degradation worsens, increasingly short fragments of polynucleotides are affected, as shown in FIG. 2. Eventually, the polynucleotides do not elute from the system. As such, the degradation effect or decreasing resolution appears to be a function of the length of the polynucleotide fragment being separated.
There is no published chemical mechanism which would explain such a degradation effect that distinguishes between different size fragments while using reverse phase chromatography. Therefore, we first examined our procedure for packing the column. We realized that the molecules that we were attempting to separate were several magnitudes larger in size than those conventionally separated by reverse phase ion pair liquid chromatography. We suspected that hydrodynamic flow through the column was adequate for short polynucleotide fragments, but was being disrupted for larger fragments. In other words, perhaps the longest fragments were being partially sheared. However, we were unable to identify a packing procedure that would discriminate between short and long fragments of polynucleotides.
Although we could not conceive a mechanism by which chemical contamination could produce these unusual results, we nevertheless examined contamination of one or more of the various "pure" reagents employed in liquid chromatography. After testing each of the reagents for contamination, we determined that this was not the source of the problem. This is not surprising, since the mobile phases used are not corrosive.
Subsequent clean-up of the column with injections of tetrasodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), a metal-chelating agent, largely restored chromatographic resolution, as shown in FIG. 3. Putting a chelating additive into the mobile phase can provide some protection to the column. Without wishing to be bound by theory, there are several mechanisms by which a chelating reagent can provide protection or restore the instrument or column. One mechanism is the chelating reagent binds the free metal ions in solution, thus preventing any interaction of the metal ions with the DNA. Another mechanism is the chelating reagent coats colloidal metal ions, thereby preventing interaction of the colloidal metal ions with the DNA. The colloidal metal can be introduced from the mobile phase, injected into the mobile phase, or can be released from wetted surfaces in the fluid path. If the chelating reagent is water soluble, it can eventually dissolve the colloidal metals.
We were successful in adding small amounts (ie., 0.1 mM) of tetrasodium EDTA to the mobile phase without significant changes to the chromatography. However, this concentration of EDTA was not sufficient to protect the columns in all of the stainless steel HPLC instruments and columns that were tested. There can be cases where the amount of metal ions present or generated are at a concentration where adding a chelating reagent will coat or bind the metal ions. In these cases, addition of a small amount of chelating reagent can allow the successful separation of DNA fragments.
We tested the use of larger amounts of chelator additive in the mobile phase and found that addition of 10 mM of tetrasodium EDTA impaired the separation of polynucleotides. It was still uncertain that this higher concentration of chelating agent provided an acceptable protective benefit. While use of EDTA injected into the mobile phase (via the HPLC sample injection valve) demonstrated that the column can be regenerated, addition of chelating agents to the mobile phase is not an ideal solution to the problem as it can hamper subsequent use or analysis of the polynucleotide fragments.
We then discovered that placing a cation exchange resin in the flow path of the mobile phase removed the problem. Guard disks were prepared containing a gel-type iminodiacetate resin with an ion exchange capacity of 2.5 mequiv/g (tested with Cu(II)). FIG. 4 shows a chromatogram obtained when the guard disk was positioned directly in front of the sample injection valve. FIG. 5 shows a chromatogram obtained when the guard disk was placed directly in front of the separation column (ie., between the injection valve and the column). Attempts to separate polynucleotides on the stainless steel HPLC system without the use of guard disks or guard columns containing cation exchange resin or chelating resin resulted in rapid deterioration of the chromatographic separation.
From the improved results obtained by placing a cation exchange resin in the flow path of the mobile phase, we concluded that whatever was causing the peak distortion, probably ionic contaminants, was capable of binding to the cation exchange resin. Whatever was causing the fragment size-dependent distortion of the peaks had been removed by the cation exchange resin.
Ionic contamination of the system can logically originate in one or more of several sources. The most significant sources of metal ions are HPLC components containing fritted filters made of stainless steel. Fritted filter components are used in mobile phase filters, check valve filters, helium spargers, mobile phase mixers, in-line filters, column frits, and other parts of the HPLC. Frits are commonly located at each end of a separation column in order to contain the particulate packing material within the column. The frit at the head of a column also serves to trap particulate material. Trapped particulate materials can be metal ions released from another part of the liquid chromatography system. The large surface area associated with any particular fritted component can contribute to faster solubilization of metals and release of ions. Thus, the ionic contamination from a fritted component can arise in at least two ways. First, the component can be a source of ionic material. Second, it can be a means for trapping ionic material.
Ionic contamination from metals can exist in two forms. One form is dissolved metal ions. In another form, metals ions can exist in the colloidal state. For example, colloidal iron can be present, even in "high purity" 18 megohm water. Any metal or other ion that can interact with polynucleotides in the manner described could cause potentially harmful chromatographic effects when the metal becomes trapped on the chromatographic column. Magnesium and/or calcium and other ions can be present in samples such as PCR products. However, at the concentrations typically used, magnesium ions present in PCR products do not harm the peak separation.
Metal ion contamination such as colloidal iron can be released from frits, travel to other parts of the HPLC and then be trapped. These types of contaminants will interfere with DNA in solution or after having been released and trapped on a critical component of the HPLC such as the column, an inline filter in front of the detector, or at a back pressure device located after the detector.
In order to test our hypothesis that soluble metals and, potentially, other ions were causing loss of peak resolution during polynucleotide separations, we challenged the HPLC system with iron, chromium, and nickel. Known concentrations of these three metal ions were added to a polynucleotide standard (pUC18 DNA-Hae III digest). The polynucleotide/metal ion solutions were then injected into the HPLC.
Chromium (III) ions (prepared from CrK(SO.sub.4).sub.2 did not degrade the separation when present in the sample at 9 mM. However, the sample contained 100 mM EDTA as a preservative against enzymatic degradation during storage, and much of the chromium could have been bound in an EDTA complex. However, when chromium was present at 90 mM, fragment size-ependent degradation of peaks occurred. At 900 mM chromium, no peaks could be detected. Several hours later, a sample containing 50 mM Cr(III) showed complete loss of the separation peaks.
The same protocol using Ni(II) (prepared from Ni.sub.2 SO.sub.4) showed substantially no effect on peak shape, although some peak broadening was observed at 0.1 M Ni(II).
With Fe(III) (prepared from FeNH.sub.4 (SO.sub.4).sub.2), the effect was less than with Cr(III). An injection of 900 .mu.M of Fe(III) in the polynucleotide standard showed no effect. However, an injection of 2700 .mu.M resulted in a loss of all peaks. There was some indication that the results were time-dependent, with the full effect becoming apparent several minutes after preparation of the metal/polynucleotide sample.
The contact times and metal concentrations of the experiments described above were several orders of magnitude higher than would be found in a stainless steel HPLC system used for polynucleotide separations. Also, none of the experiments indicated how any reaction could be dependent on the size of the polynucleotide fragment. However, these data show the relative effect on separations of some of the metals found in stainless steel on polynucleotide separation.
As an example of the effects of stainless steel, placement of a previously used stainless steel frit as an inline frit in front of the column resulted in no peaks being eluted from the column, even after short exposure of the frit to the fluid path. In this case all of the DNA was lost in the separation. This means that either DNA was taken up by the frit, or the frit released material that either disrupted the separation of DNA on the column or within the fluid path to the column and detector.
The effect of metals on the reverse phase column separation of polynucleotides or an effect that discriminated according to fragment size has not been reported in the literature. There are, in fact, only a limited number of publications on the chromatographic separation of polynucleotides; most of which focus on single-stranded polynucleotides. Separation of single-stranded polynucleotides has been performed routinely by many workers, but this is usually on very short lengths of polynucleotide fragments (usually less than 100-mer, with 25-mer the average length), where, based on our observations of double-stranded polynucleotides, we would expect the degradation effect to be much less pronounced.
Gunther Bonn and his colleagues have developed the world's leading chromatographic method for separating double-stranded polynucleotides. Bonn's work was performed on a stainless steel HPLC system with stainless steel hardware, including stainless steel frits. Based on our discovery, we concluded that the effect of metal contamination on polynucleotide separations was never reported by Bonn or others because the amount of dissolved and particulate metals in their stainless steel systems was below the threshold where degradation of the separation occurs and the systems worked adequately to produce good peak separations. Also, our work was carried out over a longer period, perhaps giving sufficient time for accumulation of contaminants within the system.
Metal-free or titanium instrumentation is commonly used in protein separations, for reasons peculiar to the art of protein separation. For example, the activity of a protein can be affected if a metal is present. If the protein is intended to be collected and studied, separation is generally performed in a metal-free environment. Also, protein separations use particular mobile phases that can be corrosive to stainless steel HPLC equipment.
Although metal-free or titanium systems are generally used in the separation of proteins for the reasons discussed above, it has been demonstrated that the use of metal-free or titanium systems is not necessary to maintain the integrity of the separation and that stainless steel HPLC systems show equivalent performance (Herold, M. et al., BioChromatography, 10:656-662 (1991)). In fact, Hewlett-Packard, one of the leading manufacturers of HPLC systems, now recommends stainless steel systems for use in protein separations.
Because of the success of using stainless steel components in protein separations, and because the use of stainless steel systems for polynucleotide separations had been shown to be successful in the past, there had previously been no indication of the requirement to use non-metal or titanium system components for liquid chromatographic separation of polynucleotide fragments.
Our subsequent experiments showed that even if titanium or PEEK fluid path components are used, then some treatment was necessary before the components could be used for Matched Ion Polynucleotide Chromatography. Although an improvement, our initial use of titanium frits did not give consistent results. Treatment of the frits with dilute nitric acid and then with a chelating agent did improve the performance of the instrument. Similarly, as shown in the examples, PEEK frits were not consistently suitable for MIPC, but acid treatment did improve their performance.
Finally, degassing the fluid before it enters the liquid chromatography system removes the oxygen. This process will inhibit the oxidation and production of metal ions in stainless steel or titanium or other tubing containing iron. The use of a degasser to remove oxygen can help the MIPC separation. This is probably because the need for an ion contaminant free fluid path is much more critical in MIPC than in prior art separation processes. The use of the precautions of the method and system of the present invention has been found to be much more critical for double stranded DNA than for single stranded DNA separations.
As Bonn and coworkers demonstrated, stainless steel can be an excellent material to be used for the fluid path of DNA separations. However, it is difficult to keep the stainless steel surface free of contaminants which interfere with MIPC, especially as the surfaces age.