Candy Electrophoresis Lab

Candy Electrophoresis Lab

1. They all were the same color as the reference dyes.a.Yes, the yellow band faded more than the reference band.

b.The blue reference faded more than the reference.

c.In the yellow candy band, we started to get a slight shade of blue.

d.blue and yellow moved towards the cathode.

These dyes were probably artificial dyes, the same as the reference dyes, as they all moved similarly as the reference dyes.

2.Dyes that moves towards a positive charge are usually artificial dyes. The yellow and the blue dyes moved in an opposite direction towards the negative charge. All of the reference dyes moved from the wells. Fast green FCF and citrus red 2 would move in a similar direction because they are artificial.

3. They used artificial colors in dog food to preserve the nutrients and to make the food look like food that is appetizing to dogs.

4. One reason why artificial food coloring is preferable to natural food coloring is that artificial food coloring lasts longer and might be cheaper to produce.

FD&C Dye	Color	Natural Alternative	Source of Natural Dye
FD&C Blue 1	Blue	Natural Blue Dye	vegetable juice
FD&C Green  3	Green	Natural Green Dye	spinach
FD&C Red 3,	Red	Natural Red Dye	beet juice
FD&C Yellow  5	Yellow	Natural Yellow Dye	turmeric

5.What two factors control the distance the colored dye solutions migrate?

1. Charge of the dye
2. the size of the dye

         

6.The force that helps move the dyes through the gel is the electrical current which drives the  force of attraction between negative charges and positive charges ( the negatively charged dyes are pulled towards the positive cathode and the positively charged dyes move towards the negative cathode).

7.The electrical current of the electrophoresis system  causes the molecules to move by charge and the gelatin that the molecule is put in causes the molecules to separate by size. The electric current makes the molecule move but the smaller the molecule is faster it can move through the gel compared to the bigger molecules. That is how they are separated by size.

8. The DNA molecules would separate by size with the lightest DNA molecule to travel the most distance ( 600). The way they separate in the order of the largest distance to the shortest distance is 600, 1000,2000, and 5,000 daltons.