Chemistry Lab 7

Unit 7 Lab: DNA

Name: Date:

Experiment: Agarose Gel Electrophoresis of DNA Fragments

Lab Results

1. List the distances traveled in mm for the bands in the DNA ladder in the table below. Remember, smaller fragments travel farther than longer ones, so the top-most band will be the 1,000 bp sized DNA fragments whereas the bottom-most band will be the 50 bp sized DNA fragments.

Here is an example of an acceptable student answer: Distances will vary based on how long the gel was run, but the supplied are for approximately 1 minute.

DNA Ladder
Band	Distance (mm)
50 bp
100 bp
150 bp
200 bp
250 bp
300 bp
400 bp
500 bp
600 bp
700 bp
800 bp
900 bp
1,000 bp

2. Which alleged father, if any, can be definitively ruled out as the child's biological father?

Conclusions

1. What is purpose of DNA?

2. List and describe an enzyme involved in DNA replication.

3. Suppose a suspicious hair was found in a victim’s home. A gel is set up with the DNA fragments of two suspected criminals in lanes 4 and 5, the DNA fragments of the suspicious hair in lane 3, and the victim’s DNA fragments, as a negative control, are in lane 2. A DNA ladder is in lane 1. The resulting gel is below. Which suspect, if any, committed the crime? Explain your answer.

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