Scientist use gel electrophoresis to separate DNA out by?

Question

please help!

Answer 1

Think of your agarose gel as one of those rope jungle gyms. Now picture an adult trying to catch a little kid as they move through it. The little kid will make it a lot farther because he/she is smaller and so can fit through the holes better. The adult is a lot bigger and so more cumbersome so will take longer to get as far as the kid. This is what is going on in the gel which is a matrix of holes. As the DNA migrates towards the positive charge (it's negative due to the phosphate backbone), it is sorted by size (largest bands closest to the wells).

Answer 2

DNA has a charge to it, and the difference in charges allows the DNA to be pulled away from the original well. The DNA is separated by the number of basepairs in each piece due to the constraints on the gel. Think of the gel as a really thick fluid. The larger pieces of DNA need more energy to get through the gel, and the smaller pieces are much lighter, needing less energy. This is why the gels have multiple bands on them. It is the differential movement of DNA pieces.

Answer 3

I remember learning about this in Bio last year. The electrophoresis makes the smaller bands, which are less dense and easier to move, go towards the bottom of the gel, and the larger bands stay towards the top, since they're larger and harder to move around. I don't really remember as to how they get about moving, though. Sorry. Good luck! Once you understand how gel electrophoresis works, it's really quite interesting.

Answer 4

Gel electrophoresis is used to separate DNA fragments according to size. Shorter DNA fragments move more rapidly through the agarose gel than longer ones.

Answer 5

size

Answer 6

I don't know, but it's probably on this web-page somewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_sequencing

Answer 7

Don't know,but MMMMMMM you're hot(-;