Dye Electrophoresis Lab
Write the problem and hypothesis in your lab notebook.
Problem: Can gel electrophoresis be used to identify unknown dyes?
Procedure: attach the procedures
Data:
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Data Table: include a table of the dyes, their charge and distance traveled
(The dye measurement should be in mm and is a measurement of the
furthest they traveled on the gel from the well)
Gel Sketch: drawn with all colored bands, wells labeled and
positive/negative orientation
List the dyes that make up the three unknown mixtures and describe how
you determined them (include dye measurements, charge, color)
Questions
Remember to write full sentence answers that incorporate part of the question
for it to make sense or write the full question and answer.
1. Was the gel electrophoresis process successful in determining the
unknown dyes?
2. What was the purpose of the known dyes?
3. List and describe at least two sources of error and ways to solve them in
the future.
4. Make a logical connection of the experiment to the real world.
On-line Electrophoresis
Go to the following website and answer the following questions as you do the
activity http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/gel/
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List and describe each step of the gel electrophoresis process.
(make sure you include in your discussion for step 1 the purpose of the
buffer, in step 3 the purpose of the DNA size standard, in step 3 how the
DNA pieces move, in step 4 an explanation of how ethidium bromide
works and why it should be handled with gloves, in step 5 include a
sketch of the gel with the DNA bands and DNA size standard(ladder)