What is "gel electrophoresis"

electrophoresis \electrophoresis\ n.

1. (Chem.) the motion of charged molecules or particles in a liquid medium under the influence of an electric field; particles with a positive charge move toward the cathode and negative to the anode. [WordNet sense 1]

   Syn: cataphoresis.

2. (Chem., Biochem.) the application of the principle of electrophoresis to separate molecules, used as an analytical or preparative technique; as, separation by electrophoresis; gel electrophoresis.

   Note:

   Gel electrophoresis is a technique in which the molecules to be separated are moved through a gelatinous medium under the influence of an electric field. At the completion of a period of electrophoresis, the gel, unlike a liquid solution, may be manipulated as a single object, permitting the substances contained within to be detected or visualized by a variety of methods, and their relative mobilities determined. It is therefore a popular analytic tool in biochemistry, and has many variants. Popular substances used to create the gel are starch, polyacrylamide, and agarose. Since a polyacrylamide gel can be created with different concentrations and different degrees of cross-linking, the pore size of the gel can be controlled to provide special properties appropriate to separation of specific molecules, as for example optimizaion for separation within a particular molecular weight range. in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, SDS ( sodium dodecyl sulfate, a detergent) is included; it binds to and denatures protein molecules, allowing them to be separated on the basis of their molecular weight alone. It is thus used as one method of determining the molecular weights of isolated protein chains.

Gel electrophoresis is a method for separation and analysis of macromolecules ( DNA, RNA and proteins) and their fragments, based on their size and charge. It is used in clinical chemistry to separate proteins by charge and/or size (IEF agarose, essentially size independent) and in biochemistry and molecular biology to separate a mixed population of DNA and RNA fragments by length, to estimate the size of DNA and RNA fragments or to separate proteins by charge.

Nucleic acid molecules are separated by applying an electric field to move the negatively charged molecules through a matrix of agarose or other substances. Shorter molecules move faster and migrate farther than longer ones because shorter molecules migrate more easily through the pores of the gel. This phenomenon is called sieving. Proteins are separated by charge in agarose because the pores of the gel are too large to sieve proteins. Gel electrophoresis can also be used for separation of nanoparticles.

Gel electrophoresis uses a gel as an anticonvective medium and/or sieving medium during electrophoresis, the movement of a charged particle in an electrical field. Gels suppress the thermal convection caused by application of the electric field, and can also act as a sieving medium, retarding the passage of molecules; gels can also simply serve to maintain the finished separation, so that a post electrophoresis stain can be applied. DNA Gel electrophoresis is usually performed for analytical purposes, often after amplification of DNA via PCR, but may be used as a preparative technique prior to use of other methods such as mass spectrometry, RFLP, PCR, cloning, DNA sequencing, or Southern blotting for further characterization.