Partners: Allan, Nikhil, Jackie
Introduction: The purpose of this lab was to learn the process of electrophoresis using the dyes from M&Ms. This lab is a first trial before we use DNA in our future experiments. We can learn what charges molecules in dye have and what their mass is. Procedure: First we formed our agarose gel using a mold which we poured the liquid agarose into. We then used a dye extractor to get the dyes off of our M&Ms. We put the dyes into small tubes. The next day our gel had solidified. We removed the tape and Jackie accidentally broke our gel by dropping it. Only two of our wells were still usable. Lane one had dyes from a green M&M and lane two had the dye of the brown M&M. We used a voltage of 100V for 15 minutes. The two lanes ran correctly while the others didn't. We had to borrow data from another group because our data was not correct. The first lane was blue, second was red, third was the control, fourth was the 2nd control, fifth was the 3rd control, sixth was the 4th control. They then ran the experiment. Result: All of this date is from Olivia Studebaker and Tajel Patel. They used a photo and measured the distances. The total distance was 1.5 inches. 1st sample: .56 inches, 2nd sample: .94 inches, 3rd Sample had red blue and yellow, blue went .56, red went .94 and yellow went 1.06. 4th sample had blue and yellow, blue went .56 and yellow went .88. 5th sample had blue, red and yellow, blue went .56 red went .94, and yellow went 1.06. The 6th sample had blue and red: blue went .56 and red went .94. Conclusion: This experiment showed us that electrophoresis can be used to separate small molecules using mass and charge. We learned what dyes make up other dyes. Size and charge was determined by looking at the final placement of the dyes in the gel. If a gel moved positively its charge was negative. Every dye tested matched the control dyes so we were able to correctly identify the dyes in each one tested. Dye from the red M&M matched the Red 40 and dye from the blue M&M matched Blue 1. Discussion: Charge and size are the only thing that we could observe through this lab. Charge affects the distance traveled greatly. Being smaller also allowed a dye to travel farther through the gel. So both the charge and the size of the molecule can affect how far a dye can travel through the agarose gel. Other control dyes besides agarose include: Carminic Acid, Betanin, Fast Green FCF, and Citrus Red 2. Betanin and Fast Green FCF have negatively charged ends allowing them to move through the gel. Citrus Red and Carminic Acid don't and would not move. DNA is often separated using this method. A molecule with a mass of 600 Daltons will move farther than something with a mass of 5000 Daltons. Electrophoresis allows scientists to separate things too small to do by hand and gives them the ability to learn more about DNA. Bibliography: “What Can Gel Electrophoresis Be Used For?” It Still Works | Giving Old Tech a New Life, itstillworks.com/can-gel-electrophoresis-used-5122149.html. “Unified Atomic Mass Unit.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Jan. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_atomic_mass_unit. http://ceprap.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/408/2016/10/Gel-Electrophoresis-of-Dyes.pdf
8 Comments
Liam
2/2/2018 08:04:24 am
Your post was really short and you didn't have a data table
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Liam
2/2/2018 08:12:17 am
Also, data, not date (first sentence, results)
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Liam
2/2/2018 08:05:30 am
Your post is really engaging and well written. It is incredibly short, but quite concise as well. You did lack graphic images, however, leaving some to be desired.
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2/2/2018 08:10:41 am
Hey Kellen, you did an excellent job getting right to the point in this blog. No wishy washy stuff, you went straight to what you needed to tell us, which is what a good scientist does. I enjoyed reading your blog, and I look forward to reading your future work.
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2/2/2018 08:12:46 am
Kellen, the thing about this entry is that there are no pictures. It makes your post feel dry, it lacks that "wow" factor because of it. Also, instead of just listing your data, it would be very helpful to have a data table next time. But good job overall
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Jackie
2/2/2018 08:18:50 am
Kellen, This blog post is very clearly formatted and to the point. I would like to see the subtitles distinguished from the rest of the text and some photos would be a nice touch!
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Julia
2/2/2018 08:28:56 am
Kellen, I thought you did a great job presenting the lab information in a concise way. It was very easy to read. Great job!
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Julia
2/2/2018 08:30:16 am
In the future, I might include pictures of the lab process. In addition, a picture of the gel after it was run was required in the assignment, so you will probably want to add that to your blog.
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AuthorMy name is Kellen Mayberry and I go to Holland Hall. Over the next 4 months I will be looking into the science and ethics of an upcoming field known as genomics. I have always had an interest in science and with how things work. It will be exciting to get to know how we as human beings function and why we are the way that we are. ArchivesCategories |