User guide

Bands
14-5
The Detect Bands dialog box has both a short format and an expanded
format, which you can toggle between by clicking the toggle box in the lower
right corner of the dialog.
To change any of the parameter settings, you can either type in a new value or
use the arrows to increase or decrease the setting by 10 percent. You should
experiment with various settings to find those best suited to your images.
14.2.a Detection Parameters
Lanes to Detect
You can specify whether you want to detect the bands in all the lanes or in a
single lane by selecting All or One next to the Lanes prompt. If you choose
One, type the lane number in the field next to the One button.
Note: It may be necessary to detect one lane individually if the detection
parameters applied to the whole image are not optimal for that lane (e.g.,
faint bands are not being detected or high background in that lane is
being detected as bands). You can use the Detect Bands function to
redetect bands in that lane using a different set of detection parameters.
When to Detect
If you select Auto next to the Detect prompt, band detection will occur
immediately each time you change a detection parameter. You will not need
to click on the Detect button located at the bottom of the form.
If you want to change more than one parameter before detecting, choose
Manual. With the Manual option, you can change parameter settings first,
and then apply them by clicking the Detect button.
Normalization
Normalization is a way for band detection to compensate for differences in
the darkness of the lanes on a gel image. It does not normalize for band
quantitation.