Technique widely used to measure the size of DNA strands, most often PCR output of a region of interest.
A simple sample application is gel electrophoresis alelle determination.
In the case of indel mutations (see limits of gel electrophoresis for minimal size difference issues), it is possible to determine the allele with gel electrophoresis. You can just read out the alleles right in the gel. It is a thing of beauty.
As of 2020, this method appears to be much cheaper than DNA sequencing approaches.
Gel Electrophoresis to Determine Genotype
. Source. - 1982 www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.80.6.1579 DNA fragments differing by single base-pair substitutions are separated in denaturing gradient gels by Fischer and Lerman (1982). It is possible then.
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Separation of charged molecules through a gel in an electric field. Denaturing conditions suppress folded structures, helping compare RNA lengths; matching migration alone does not establish an identical nucleotide sequence or identical covalent bonds. In the ribozyme experiments, labelled RNA was detected after separation by exposing photographic film.
Gel electrophoresis is a laboratory technique used to separate and analyze macromolecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins based on their size and charge. The basic process involves the following key components and steps: 1. **Gel Matrix**: A gel, commonly made from agarose or polyacrylamide, serves as a medium through which the molecules will travel. The pore size of the gel can be adjusted by varying its concentration, allowing for separation of different sizes of molecules.