What is the advantage of silver staining?
Detection sensitivity is crucial for low-abundance proteomic analysis. Coomassie Brilliant Blue staining, while simple, reversible and quantitative, shows limited sensitivity around 30 to 100 nanograms per band, inadequate for trace proteins. Silver staining involves impregnation with silver nitrate binding to nucleophilic side chains, then reduction by formaldehyde to metallic silver, depositing dense grains. This yields 50 to 100 times greater sensitivity down to 0.1 to 2 nanograms, enabling visualization of minor spots and single-copy proteins. It is not faster than Coomassie, not specific for nucleic acids, representing high sensitivity rather than low sensitivity method.
Ref: NCERT Biology Class XII Principles on Klenow fill-in labeling, Lehninger Chapter 9 DNA cloning techniques, and Molecular Cloning by Sambrook Chapter 10 documenting end-labeling of cohesive termini.