Multi-colored electrophoresis pattern reading system

Claim 2

A multi-colored electrophoresis pattern reading system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said signal processing means (8, 25-29) has an integral circuit composed of a condenser and a switch for controlling an integral operation; the integral operation is controlled by the integral circuit in synchronization with a scan of irradiating light by said light scanning means; and an integral time and the number of scans for reading are changed in accordance with the angle of incidence of the optical signals in the optical filter (24d) of said fluorescent-wavelength separating means.

Claim 3

A multi-colored electrophoresis pattern reading system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fluorescent-wavelength separating means has a diffraction grating in place of the optical filter (24d).

Claim 4

A multi-colored electrophoresis pattern reading system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said signal processing means (8, 25-29) has an integral circuit composed of a condenser and a switch for controlling an integral operation; the integral operation is controlled by the integral circuit in synchronization with a scan of irradiating light by said light scanning means; and an integral time and the number of scans for reading are changed in accordance with the angle of incidence of the optical signals in the diffraction grating of said fluorescent-wavelength separating means.

Claim 5

A multi-colored electrophoresis pattern reading system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said signal processing means (8, 25-29) further comprises an image compressing means for compressing an image by giving a differential value obtainable by subtracting a value of a pixel positioned at a right side of each line from a value of a pixel positioned at the left side thereof, wherein image data read from the pattern of electrophoresis is stored as a compressed differential value.

Claim 6

A system of a multi-colored fluorescent type for determining a sequence of bases of a nucleic acid with a multi-colored electrophoresis pattern reading system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: data processing means (8) for deciding the sequence of the bases of the nucleic acid from image data of plural patterns of electrophoresis obtainable by the signal processing means; wherein electrophoresis of plural samples is carried out and the sequence of the bases of the nucleic acid is determined from the plural patterns of electrophoresis.

Claim 7

A system of a multi-colored fluorescent type for determining a sequence of bases of a nucleic acid wherein a plurality of multi-colored electrophoresis pattern reading systems as claimed in claim 1 are disposed, each reading system comprising: a light source means (21) for irradiating the pattern of electrophoresis with irradiating light for exciting the fluorescent substance labelled on the sample; a light scanning means (22, 30) for scanning the irradiating light and irradiating a gel in the direction of thickness of the gel with the irradiating light from the light source means (21); a light receiving means (13) for receiving the fluorescence separated from scattered light resulting from a reading surface on the basis of a position relationship of a light receiving path by setting a light receiving surface so as to be located in a direction different from an optical axis of the irradiating light; a fluorescent-wavelength separating means (24) for separating fluorescence having a predetermined wavelength from an optical signal received by the light receiving means (13) with an optical filter (24d) capable of controlling an angle of incidence relative to an optical axis of the optical filter; an optoelectric conversion means (24) for generating electric signals by subjecting the optic signals passed through the fluorescent-wavelength passing means to optoelectrical conversion; a signal processing means (8, 25-29) for subjecting the electric signals generated by the optoelectric conversion means to signal processing and converting the electric signals into a predetermined form of data representation; and a data processing means (8) for determining the sequence of the bases of the nucleic acid from the plural patterns of electrophoresis obtained by said signal processing means of each of the reading systems; wherein the plurality of the multi-colored electrophoresis pattern reading systems are operated concurrently with each other; and said data processing means (8) of each of said reading systems reads the sequence of the bases of the nucleic acid from the plural patterns of electrophoresis obtained by said signal processing means of each of said reading systems.