gel electrophoresis

Question 1

Agarose gel

Answer 1

A sponge-like gel used in gel electrophoresis that contains pores for DNA fragments to move through

Question 2

Band (gel electrophoresis)

Answer 2

A line seen in the gel after running gel electrophoresis that corresponds to a collection of DNA fragments of a specific size.

Question 3

Base pair (bp)

Answer 3

A unit of measurement that corresponds to one nucleotide.

Question 4

Buffer

Answer 4

An ion-rich solution that carries electrical current through an agarose gel.

Question 5

DNA profiling

Answer 5

The process of identification on the basis of an individual’s genetic information.

Question 6

Electrode

Answer 6

Conductors of electricity that are attached to both ends of a gel allowing an electrical current to pass through it.

Question 7

Ethidium bromide

Answer 7

A fluorescent dye that binds to DNA fragments in a gel and allows them to be easily visualised under ultraviolet light.

Question 8

Kilobase (kb) - gel

Answer 8

A unit of measurement that corresponds to one thousand nucleotides. May also be written as kbp.

Question 9

Lane - gel

Answer 9

The column of the gel corresponding to each sample of DNA.

Question 10

Short tandem repeats (STRs

Answer 10

Short, repeated sequences of nucleotides found in the non-coding regions of nuclear DNA.

Question 11

Standard ladder

Answer 11

A mixture of DNA fragments of known length that are used to infer the size of fragments in a sample.