APPLICATIONS

Gel electrophoresis is used in DNA fingerprinting which has applications in forensics. Certain DNA segments are characteristic and vary from person to person. These segments are cut at recognition sites by restriction endonuclease enzymes and run on gel by electrophoresis. The position and number of bands on each lane of gel is characteristic of the DNA sample and considered as the genetic "fingerprint" of that sample.

Example of gel electrophoresis usage;

1. To get a DNA fingerprint for forensic analysis
2. To get a DNA fingerprint for paternity testing
3. To get a DNA fingerprint to understand the evolutionary relationships among organisms
4. To check a PCR reaction.
To test for genes associated with a particular disease