Category: Lab Notes

Electrophoresis (Electro: electric, Phoresis (greek word): to carry) is the migration of charged molecules or particles under the influence of an electric field. Electrophoresis-based methods are extensively employed for the analysis, separation and purification of biomolecules such as nucleic acid and proteins in laboratories.

Agarose gel electrophoresis is extensively used for the analysis of nucleic acid. Observations made by running DNA or RNA samples on agarose gel are very helpful to determine quantity and quality of nucleic acids. These powerful features make agarose gel electrophoresis an important essential step in many well known techniques such as northern and southern blotting, RFLP, RAPD, PCR, molecular cloning etc. Since agarose gel allows the elution of biomolecules, it can also be used for the purification of nucleic acids and large protein molecules and complexes. In addition, it can also be used to analyse biological processes such as apoptosis.