What is the purpose of 1% agarose gel electrophoresis?

Agarose gel electrophoresis is used to resolve DNA fragments on the basis of their molecular weight.

How does agarose concentration affect gel electrophoresis?

Because of the negative charge of the phosphate residues in the DNA backbone, DNA molecules move toward the positive pole (anode) of the electrophoresis apparatus. The migration rate of a DNA molecule decreases as the concentration of agarose in the gel increases.

What is the principle of agarose gel electrophoresis?

Principle of Agarose gel electrophoresis The negatively charged DNA molecules migrate towards the positive charge under the influence of constant current, thus the separation depends on the mass and charge of DNA. The DNA molecules are forced to move through the agarose gel pores.

What is the procedure of gel electrophoresis?

Gel electrophoresis is a technique used to separate DNA fragments according to their size. DNA samples are loaded into wells (indentations) at one end of a gel, and an electric current is applied to pull them through the gel. DNA fragments are negatively charged, so they move towards the positive electrode.

What causes smearing in gel electrophoresis?

Gel electrophoresis allows scientists to visualize digested samples and measure the sizes of the fragments. Smearing results from improperly prepared agarose gels, loading an undiluted sample into the wells or using poor quality samples.

Why do smaller molecules move faster in gel electrophoresis?

Shorter DNA segments find more pores that they can wiggle through, longer DNA segments need to do more squeezing and up or down moving. For this reason, shorter DNA segments move through their lane at a faster rate than longer DNA segments.

Why is agarose so expensive?

Agarose is a chain of sugar molecules, and is extracted from seaweed. Manufacturers prepare special grades of agarose for scientific experimentation. Because the agarose undergoes much commercial processing it is very expensive.

What is the purpose of gel electrophoresis technique?

Gel electrophoresis is a laboratory method used to separate mixtures of DNA, RNA, or proteins according to molecular size. In gel electrophoresis, the molecules to be separated are pushed by an electrical field through a gel that contains small pores.

What are the 5 steps of gel electrophoresis?

There are several basic steps to performing gel electrophoresis that will be described below; 1) Pouring the gel, 2) Preparing your samples, 3) Loading the gel, 4) Running the gel (exposing it to an electric field) and 5) Staining the gel.

How do you prevent smearing in gel electrophoresis?

To prevent sample leakage through the bottom of the gel and smearing of the sample bands, do not push the comb all the way to the bottom of the horizontal gel. Avoid overfilling the gel tray, as this can result in connected wells.