Large-scale carbohydrate analysis by capillary array electrophoresis: part 2. Data normalization and quantification

Automated 96-capillary array electrophoresis (CAE) methodology described in the first part of the present work offered large-scale high-performance profiling of oligo- and monosaccharides to fulfill the needs of bioindustrial laboratories. Sensitivity at low nanomolar concentration, good resolving power and reliability achieved in the experiments is invaluable for monitoring reaction products from enzymatic polysaccharide digestion with numerous applications in agricultural, chemical and food industries. In addition to optimization of mono- and oligosaccharide separations in CAE system and necessary operational protocol modifications, capillary-to-capillary and run-to-run variation in migration time and signal intensity necessitated development of data normalization tools. Internal fluorescent standards have been incorporated into the analysis aiding migration time normalization and CAE trace alignment. Data processing, visualization, and programming tools have been developed along with quantification approaches.