Electrophoresis

• Electrophoresis is a procedure that uses an electrical current to separate DNA fragments, RNA fragments or proteins depending on their size.
• (1) Electrophoresis is commonly performed using agarose gel that has been poured in a gel tray and left to solidify with a row of wells.
• (2) Put the gel tray into a gel box. You need to mak sure the end of the gel tray with the wells is closest to the negative electrode. Then add a buffer solution to the surface.
• (3) Take your fragmented DNA sample and add the same volume of loading dye to each to help the fragments sink to the bottom.
• (4) Add a set volume of a DNA sample to the first well. Then repeat this process adding the same volume and recording which DNA sample is added to each well.
• (5) Put the lid on the gel box and connect the leads from the gel box to the power supply and set it to the required volatge so the electrical current can be passed through the gel.
• (6) DNA fragments are negatively charged, so they'll move through the gel towards the positive electrode at the far end. Small DNA fragments move faster and travel further so fragments will separate according to size.