1. Increase the density of the sample, ensuring that the DNA drops evenly into the well to form straight bands, and to eliminate protein interference.

2. Add color to the sample, thereby simplifying the loading process; 

3. Contain dyes that, in an electric field, move toward the anode at predictable rates. Bromophenol blue migrates through agarose gels approximately 2.2-fold faster than xylene cyanol FF, independent of the agarose concentration. Bromophenol blue migrates through agarose gels run in 0.5× TBE at approximately the same rate as linear double-stranded DNA 300 bp in length, whereas xylene cyanol FF migrates at approximately the same rate as linear double-stranded DNA 4kb in length. These relationships are not significantly affected by the concentration of agarose in the gel over the range of 0.5% to 1.4%.