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Biology - Tools and techniques of the biotechnologist

Tools and techniques of the biotechnologist

This resource covers a number of tools and techniques used by
biotechnologists. Let's begin with gel electrophoresis.

In gel electrophoresis the mixture of DNA [1] fragments and a stain are
placed in wells in a slab of agar gel which has electrodes at each end to
create an electric field.

As DNA molecules are negatively charged (because of the phosphate groups
of the nucleotides), [2] they move towards the positive end of the gel.

* As the smaller fragments move faster than the larger ones, the
fragments separate

* The size of each fragment and therefore the number of bases [3] in each
fragment, can be calculated by comparing the distance moved against
fragments of known length

* The DNA segment, which could be a gene, has been identified. This
technique does not identify the actual sequence of bases.

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Links:
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[1] http://alison.com/#
[2] http://alison.com/#
[3] http://alison.com/#