User guide

Bands
14-7
If the sensitivity is set too high, background noise will be erroneously
detected as bands. If the setting is too low, real bands may be missed.
The default sensitivity setting is 10.00. If your gel image has faint bands (e.g.,
O.D. < 0.05, counts < 2,000), you may want to increase this value to 20.00.
Lane Width
The Lane Width determines the width along the lane lines that will be
sampled for band detection and quantitation.
When a band is detected, an average intensity value for each horizontal row
of pixels within the band brackets is calculated. You determine the number
pixels in a row when you enter the Lane Width. The wider you set the Lane
Width, the more pixels are included in the intensity average.
You should select a Lane Width that is slightly wider than the bands in your
gel. You can adjust the lane width in the Detect Bands dialog until the band
overlays are slightly wider than the bands in the image.
Fig. 14-4. Adjusting the lane width.
Note: You should always eliminate background intensity from your lanes using
the Lane > Lane Background command (section 13.2) before detecting
bands.
You can also change the lanes widths for individual lanes using the Lane >
Lane Width command (section 13.1.g).
Adjust the lane
width until the band
overlays are slightly
wider than the bands
in the image.