Profile my DNA, babe.
November 15, 2003 8:10 AM Subscribe
DNA profiling may be a complex issue, but whatever your take, go ahead and try your hand at genetic sleuthing with this spiffy flash interactive.
Eh, pretty good for the layman, but I do research in a molecular genetics lab and thus do this sort of thing every day.
Want a more realistic idea of what gel electrophoresis is like? Well, first you make up a tube consisting of a very small (like 20 microliters or 20*10^-6 or 20 millioneths of a liter) amount of DNA to run and a bit of loading buffer. Basically it's a blue dye that you can see on the gel as it runs and use to detect bands later on. Then we make up the gel itself. It's a lot like making Jell-O really. Add some powder to some liquid, boil, pour into the mold, put a "comb" into it, and let it cool down. The comb is a bit of plastic with some little nubs sticking down and will create wells in the gel. You then place the gel in it's tray into a gel box, add some fluid, and then load the DNA/buffer solution into the wells (you use a micropipeter, not an eyedropper, but it's kinda, sorta the same idea). Plug the box into a power supply and wait about 3 hours or so. Pull the tray out and place the gel in a tray containing some water, add some ethidiome bromide (careful, it's mutagenic!) to this and let it stain for 15 min. or so. Then look at it under a UV lamp and you'll see banding.
If you want a scale you need to also run a marker, a bit of DNA that has already been digested with the size of each band already known. Each gel will look different so you need to use a marker every time as it won't look the same twice. Also interpreting the bands can be a bit tough. Very rarely are they ever as clear and discrete as shown for a variety of reasons.
It's honestly a very simple procedure and something almost anyone could be taught to do in about 20-30 min.
posted by Belgand at 12:03 AM on November 18, 2003
Want a more realistic idea of what gel electrophoresis is like? Well, first you make up a tube consisting of a very small (like 20 microliters or 20*10^-6 or 20 millioneths of a liter) amount of DNA to run and a bit of loading buffer. Basically it's a blue dye that you can see on the gel as it runs and use to detect bands later on. Then we make up the gel itself. It's a lot like making Jell-O really. Add some powder to some liquid, boil, pour into the mold, put a "comb" into it, and let it cool down. The comb is a bit of plastic with some little nubs sticking down and will create wells in the gel. You then place the gel in it's tray into a gel box, add some fluid, and then load the DNA/buffer solution into the wells (you use a micropipeter, not an eyedropper, but it's kinda, sorta the same idea). Plug the box into a power supply and wait about 3 hours or so. Pull the tray out and place the gel in a tray containing some water, add some ethidiome bromide (careful, it's mutagenic!) to this and let it stain for 15 min. or so. Then look at it under a UV lamp and you'll see banding.
If you want a scale you need to also run a marker, a bit of DNA that has already been digested with the size of each band already known. Each gel will look different so you need to use a marker every time as it won't look the same twice. Also interpreting the bands can be a bit tough. Very rarely are they ever as clear and discrete as shown for a variety of reasons.
It's honestly a very simple procedure and something almost anyone could be taught to do in about 20-30 min.
posted by Belgand at 12:03 AM on November 18, 2003
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posted by majick at 9:37 AM on November 15, 2003