1. What is the importance of micropipettes and gel electrophoresis in genetic en
ID: 59656 • Letter: 1
Question
1. What is the importance of micropipettes and gel electrophoresis in genetic engineering?
2. During the labs, you were often reminded to avoid contact with the pipette tips—for example, you were asked to put the pipette tip on without using your hands, to avoid setting down the micropipette, to use the ejector button to remove the tip, and to keep the tip box closed. If you were working with plasmids and bacterial cells, why would these precautions be important?
3. Study your gel electrophoresis results:
Which solution sample contained a single dye: S1, S2, or S3? How do you know?
The molecular weights for the dyes are 452.38 atomic units (au) for orange G, 669.98 au for bromophenol blue, and 538.62 au for xylene cyanole. How do these weights compare with your original conclusions about the weights of the dyes?
4. Do you think there was a difference in the amount of charge on one of the dye molecules? Explain the reasoning for your response.
Explanation / Answer
1.
Genetic engineering is the one that deals with organism’s genomes. We can manipulate the genetic makeup of a cell using various genetic engineering techniques. Micropipettes are important tools in genetic engineering. They are used to inject very small quantities of DNA into micro-tubes, and into animal or human cells. The function of gel electrophoresis in genetic engineering is to separate fragments of DNA by their length and electrical charges.
2.
During the labs, you were often reminded to avoid contact with the pipette tips to avoid cross contamination of samples.
3.
The dyes with negative charge are bromophenol blue, orange G, and xylene cyanol. So, they move towards positive charge. S1 is orange G, which is a single dye with lesser molecular weight and it moves greatest distance in the gel.
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