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Article: Electrophoresis
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- Biology
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Electrophoresis
Electrophoresis is one of the most important techniques used by molecular biologists. To name only a few applications, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) electrophoresis is used to map the order of
restriction fragments
within
chromosomes
, to analyze DNA variation within a population by restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), and to determine the
nucleotide
sequence of a piece of DNA.
Electrophoresis refers to the migration of a charged molecule through a restrictive
matrix
, or gel, drawn by an electrical force. As the force drags the molecule through the gel, it encounters resistance from the strands of the gel, retarding its rate of migration. In gel ...