Gel Electrophoresis -samples with ligated DNA are loaded in a “gel” where they are run; an electric field is set up within the box -DNA has a slight charge, and thus it will be attracted to the positive end of the box much like a magnet -the gel is like a net and larger pieces of DNA pass through much slower than smaller pieces of DNA -later on, this gel can be interpreted and compared to other samples of DNA

Gel Electrophoresis -loading dye is added to each sample so that the DNA can be “visualized” and tracked on the gel, otherwise the DNA is invisible -we don’t want the dye to run off the gel, or we will lose the DNA we extracted -other samples that aren’t your DNA include a positive control, a negative control (without any DNA), and a “ladder” so that the sizes of DNA can be compared

Gel Electrophoresis -once DNA has been amplified, enzymes are added to cut (or ligation) up the DNA and “markers” are added to make sure that we will be able to “see” the DNA later on (otherwise the DNA would be completely invisible to us -different enzymes cut in different spots on the DNA, usually at a specific sequence