Electrophoresis

Electrophoresis I. The separation of DNA molecules according to size II. The objective of this lab was to separate DNA molecules according to size using electrophoresis and determine an unknown by plotting known DNA fragments. III. As said in the lab material, DNA molecules can be identified by their distance traveled when electrophoretically manipulated. Electrophoresis is the movement of charged molecules under the influence of an electric field. Tris-Acetate was the buffer used and it has a pH of 8. By using some DNA fragments of known lengths, an unknown DNA molecule can be compared and determined. The 3 samples that were placed on the gel for electrophoresis included a dye mixture of xylene cyanol, bromophenol blue, and orange-G, a mixture of DNA standards which we would determine our unknown from and a single unknown DNA fragment. The dye mixture did not actually contain DNA but it would mimic DNA fragments and would help us keep the other samples from running off the gel. The unique sizes and thus the distances traveled on the gel made would help us determine the unknown. The bigger the DNA molecule was the slower it would move and inevitably the shorter its distance would be. In dna, cm, unknown, traveled, fragments, pairs, molecules, molecule, mixture, fragment, 34, using, thus, nucleotide, move, length, known, gel, electrophoresis, dye, distance, determine, base, 2176, 1014, standard, size, samples, plotting, pair, one, number, multiply, moved, meters, long, lab, kbp, human, help, graph, contrast, cell, because, angstroms, actually, according, 2400, 109, 64