Reading Gels -once a gel has been run, it is stained with another chemical exposed to UV light to allow the DNA to appear -below is an example of a gel showing various different samples of DNA and how they compare -notice how some bands are located in the same line on the DNA; those indicate the size of the DNA and they are recorded as base pairs (or bp)

Reading Gels -this process of running and reading a gel has been used to link family members where family members will have similar bands as compared to unrelated people -this process is also used for identification purposes since each person will have a unique banding pattern -for this lab, we are looking for an Alu element present on a particular gene in our DNA (on chromosome 16); this gene codes for a protein that dissolves blood clots -the Alu element exists throughout the DNA and seems to help in the secretion of proteins from the cell -the phenotypes are either all positive (present) for the element, positive and negative for the element, or all negative (not present)

Example Gel Directions: Make some observations about the gels below: