A Sweet Investigation

Gel Electrophoresis

Word has spread of KJ's talent and charm and her phone began to blow up with requests. She finally took a break from researching epigenetics and answered one of her calls. The client was in tears at finally hearing the voice of his role model, Kristin Jones. After KJ threatened to hang up the phone, he finally explained his problem.

KJ's client explained that someone had broken into his room while he was gone and ate part of his lollipop. The only way to solve this crime was to get a sample of saliva from the suspects and match it to a sample of saliva on the lollipop. Restriction enzymes in this experiment would be used to break up the DNA into pieces that can be examined. Then, these DNA pieces were placed into agarose gel and were strained so that the smallest pieces separated from the largest. The negative DNA pieces were attracted towards the positive end of the tray. The distance that they moved was measured and placed on a film. The film is a series of lines as shown in the picture above. Honey was guilty because her saliva matched that of the saliva on the lollipop.



http://www.bio-rad.com/webroot/web/images/lsr/solutions//technologies/protein_electrophoresis_blotting_and_imaging/protein_electrophoresis/technology_detail/pet11_img1.jpg

This is an example of the process of matching the DNA on a piece of evidence to the DNA from suspects. Using positive and negative charges to separate pieces of DNA, these lines are created. If the lines of DNA on the evidence match the lines of a suspect, then the crime is solved and the suspect is found guilty.