Candy Electrophoresis Lab Focus Questions

When I analyzed the results of the gel, I noticed that the experimental samples had dye bands that were much larger than the dye bands of the known samples. This might signify that the experimental samples had many different dyes in them. The first experimental sample, which came from orange M&M's, turned into a long band that included both yellow 5 and yellow 6. The second experimental sample, which came from green Skittles, separated into a blue 1 band and a yellow 5 band, which makes sense, because blue and yellow make green. The last experimental sample, which came from red Mike and Ikes, was clearly red 40.

After looking at the structures of carminic acid, betanin, fast green FCF, and citrus red 2, and comparing them to blue 1, yellow 5, yellow 6, and red 40, I believe that fast green FCF would move similarly to blue 1, given their structural similarities. Also, I noticed that all the dyes in the example had negative charges, overall, and fast green FCF is the only one that has an overall negative charge.

Dog food manufacturers may put artificial food colors into dog food to make it look more appealing. Most people are drawn to brighter colors, so they might be more likely to buy brightly colored food.

Artificial food colors may be preferable to the natural food colors because brightly colored food is more attractive to the human eye.

The two factors that control the distance that the colored dye solutions migrate are the size of the dye molecules and the voltage of the gel electrophoresis system. Electrophoresis separates the molecules by size, so obviously, the size of the molecules of dye in each sample is important. However, the voltage is also important; the dyes would have moved faster if the voltage had been higher.

The force of the electricity would help move the dyes through the gel, as that is how electrophoresis works.

The fact that one side of the gel was charged positively while the other was charged negatively caused the molecules to separate by size. Since the dyes were negatively charged, they attempted to move towards the positively charged side. The speed at which they were able to do this was due to their size.

If I were to use gel electrophoresis on molecules with weights of 600, 1000, 2000, and 5000 daltons, I would expect the molecules with the higher molecular weights to move less far than the molecules with lower molecular weights. I would expect this because I think the molecules with higher weights would be larger, and therefore move slower.