Candy Electrophoresis Lab

1. The reference blue dye was way behind and the actual blue dye from the candy. All the reference dye fell off because during the experiment, our class went to an assembly. We did not come back from the assembly in time. I did not see any dyes that were a different color than any of the reference bands.  There were no dyes that moved in the wrong direction.

2. The "fast green FCF" looked like the Blue 1 that I examined in the lab. They had similar chemical compositions, and their structures also looked very alike. The "citrus red 2" looks very similar to the Red 40 that I used in the lab. Although these dyes did not have the same composition, their structures were still similar.

3. I think that dog food manufactures such as Beneful and Snausages Breakfast Bites have food dyes in their product becuase dogs prefer more colorful food. If the food did not have a good taste, but it was colored like a dog treat, I think a dog would get tricked by the color of the food and still eat it.

4. I think that an artificial food color would be preferable to a natural food color because artificial food colors have more sugar, and therefore taste better than a natural food color.

5. The two factors that control the distance the colored dye solutions migrate are the charge of the dye and the length. If the DNA segment is longer, then it will travel slower. If the DNA segment is shorter, it will travel quicker.

6. Electricity is the force that helps the dyes move through the gel. Once the dyes are put in the gel, I turned on the electrical force.

7. The gel causes the molecules to separate by size because it takes the longer DNA more time to go through the gel. The shorter DNA has an easier time getting through the gel because it has to go through small sections of the gel.

8. The DNA of molecules with molecular weights of 600, 1000, 2000, and 5000 daltons would separate from lightest to heaviest. This means that the DNA with the molecular weight of 600 would go through the gel first, followed by the 1000 and 2000 weights. The 5000 weight would finish last because it weighs the most, making it the slowest.