For the past week and a half, I have been doing gel
electrophoresis to determine ideal concentrations of various chemicals to
digest my DNA and histone proteins. Gel electrophoresis is a biological
technique used to determine the size of the molecules in samples. For DNA, the
technique is especially useful at determining how many base pairs a strand of
DNA has. It is a mostly qualitative measurement, where samples can be compared
to a known DNA ladder standard. Gel electrophoresis works by inserting samples
into lanes of a gel, and applying a current through the gel and a buffer
medium. Because DNA is negatively charged, it will travel towards the anode.
Shorter DNA will travel faster though, because it is more easily able to maneuver
through the maze-like holes in the gel.
Below is an image of the first gel I ran. The DNA ladders on
the two ends are very crisp and visible – but there is a problem with the other
samples; none of them moved. Such non-movement was likely because the
digestions were not working. We have attempted different concentrations of our
digestion chemicals, but have yet to find a solution. While we wait for more
supplies to be ordered, I will begin making another sample of nucleosomes again
from the 50 mL of whole chicken blood. Hopefully the gel electrophoresis
problems will soon be resolved, and we won’t have this issue again in the
future!
No comments:
Post a Comment