Mechanical Engineering,

is the movement of an electrically charged substance under the influence of an electric field. In practice, electrophoresis offers with a common method of separating large molecules (such as DNA fragments or proteins) from a mixture of similar molecules. An electric current is passed through a medium containing the mixture, and each kind of molecule travels through the medium at a different rate, depending on its electrical charge and size. Separation is based on these differences. Agarose and acrylamide gels are the media commonly used for electrophoresis of proteins and nucleic acids. Gel Electrophoresis: Gel Electrophoresis is a technique in which components of a mixture are separated from one another on the basis of differences in charge and attraction to a gel phase. Gel electrophoresis is commonly used to separate DNA fragments based on size, yielding a unique “fingerprint”. Gel electrophoresis uses positive and negative charges to separate charged particles. Electricity travels through a buffer solution in the electrophoresis chamber. The buffer allows the electric current to flow from the cathode (negative electrode) to the anode (positive electrode). DNA is negatively charged; therefore it travels toward the positive electrode