What is Agarose Gel Electrophoresis? What is it used for?

It is a technique used to separate nucleic acids like DNA, or RNA molecules by size.

In this method, negatively charged nucleic acid molecules are moved through an agarose matrix under the influence of an electric field (electrophoresis). Shorter molecules move faster and migrate farther than longer ones. Longer molecules cover lesser distances.

It is used in molecular biology, biotechnology and biochemistry to estimate the size of DNA molecules following restriction enzyme digestion, analyse the products in techniques like fingerprinting and to separate the cut DNA molecules prior to other techniques.

Materials required are buffer solution, agarose, dyes, gel rack, comb, power supply and UV lamp.