New homework help.

[JetRaiden]

Ok, I have biology homework, and I have to read this:

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresource.../05_tools.html

and summerize what a gel electrophoresis. My brain hurts so I figured I'd ask you guys for help.

[Onizuka]

Vocab:

Restriction Enzymes:Bond double-stranded DNA at specific active sites.

Gel Electrophoresis:Charged macromolecules are sent through a polymeric gel by an imposed static field.

Cloning Vector:Circular DNA molecules derived from certain bacteria or genomic DNA.

Yeast artificial Chromosone:is the essential functional parts of a natural yeast chromosone.

The last one beats me.

Okay, basically, I took biology 3 years ago. I have no idea what the hell that is talking about.

[AztecWarrior]

I'm taking Honors Biology. We're doing the cell membrane. I'd help, but I'm growing severely sleepy.

[Rayder]

Polymerase Chain Reaction - Initiators (PCR primers) are attached as short (almost like its incomplete) complementary strands to the ends of seperated DNA fragments. One enzyme then comes and completes the synthesis of the complementary strand, doubling the original amount of DNA. This can result in a large collection of copies of the original DNA fragment.

[1024]

Damnit Jet, you ever going to do your own homework?

[Dharkbayne]

http://www.schoolsucks.com/modules.p...showpage&pid=2

[Glaynor]

Well, this really isn't that hard. IT isn't so much a biology homework assignment as a reading comprehension assignment. I don't know anything about biology, but I'm an attorney and all we do is read things.

Break it down - starts talking about different methods of analyzing the humane genome. gel electrophoresis is one of those methods.

Read each paragraph separetly and figure out why they have it in the essay. That makes it much easier to understand. It follows a logical order that you just have to understand and then its a piece of cake.

[Khronos]

gel electrophoresis is basically a way to sort macromolecules. (DNA mostly.)
it consists simply of gel + dna that you wanna separate + an electrical charge.

the gel is poured onto a surface..i believe we learned it was glass. a "comb-like" object is inserted into the gel and the gel hardens around it. this is similar to putting a comb into jello. the comb is taken out once the gel is hard. there should now be 4 wells where DNA can be put in.

the DNA then gets placed into each well. theres a special way that the DNA is sorted

the dna is negatively charged..because of the phosphate groups of the DNA. a negative charge is then sent through the DNA and this causes it to repel and move away from the negative end..to the positive end of the gel. the current is turned off and what happens is "bands" of DNA are represented through the gel.

small portions of DNA will travel faster than the larger portions. This allows you to see a gradient of sizes.