Gel Electrophoresis of PCR Products Education Lab Report

Gel Electrophoresis
Author Name
Institution Affiliation
Theory and Introduction
Gel electrophoresis of PCR products is a standard way of determining the quality of a reaction as well as its yield. It should be noticed that PCR products range up to 9 kb in length, and most of the amplifications remain consistent at 1kb where PAGE analysis is considered a far better and more effective option than the others (Berg, 2012). These days, gel electrophoresis is being widely used for separating and analyzing a variety of macromolecules such as proteins, RNA and DNA. With this technique, one can easily divide macromolecules into micro-molecules for further studies (Williams & Goodeve). This method is primarily used in clinical chemistry and helps separate proteins based on their size or charge. In the fields of molecular biology and biochemistry, gel electrophoresis is used to separate mixed populations of RNA and DNA fragments and to estimate the actual size of each RNA or DNA fragment. The purpose of this lab experiment was to visualize the given sample with UV light. No extra staining was used for this purpose; in fact, the DNA stain was clearly visible. Multiple bands from the PCR reaction indicated varying priming sites for the primers of the target DNA.
Apparatus and Chemicals Used
Materials Required for Advance Preparation

Quantity

UView 6x loading dye

1 vial

PCR molecular weight ruler

1 vial

Sterile water

1 bottle

PCR products for electrophoresis from previous lesson

4 per group

2 ml microcentrifuge tubes

24

Materials Required but Not Supplied

Quantity

2–20 µl adjustable-volume micropipets

8

2–20 µl pipet tips, aerosol barrier

8 racks

50x TAE

1 bottle

Molecular biology grade agarose

1 bottle

Graduated cylinders, 3 L and 500 ml

1

Microwave or magnetic hot plate and stir bar

1

Bottle or Erlenmeyer flask, 1 L
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