Agarose Gel Electrophoresis

Agarose gel electrophoresis is most commonly gel electrophoresis used in biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, and clinical chemistry to separate a mixed population of macromolecules such as DNA fragments of varying sizes in a matrix of agarose, typically after restriction enzyme digestion or PCR. Agarose gel electrophoresis can be used for estimation of the size and concentration of DNA molecules, analysis of a PCR product and separation of DNA fragments for extraction and purification, It can also be used to separate RNA molecules if care is taken to avoid RNA degradation; in certain limited applications, peptides or proteins may also be purified by agarose gel electrophoresis. Most agarose gels used are between 0.7–2% dissolved in a suitable electrophoresis buffer.