This article describes a simple, inexpensive, easy to conduct gel-electrophoresis activity using food dyes. It is an alternative to the more expensive counterparts which require agarose gel, DNA samples, purchased chamber and Tris-borate-EDTA buffer. We suggest some learning activities for senior biology students along with comments on several…

Giving students the opportunity to extract, manipulate and visualise DNA molecules enhances a constructivist approach to learning about modern techniques in biology and biotechnology Visualisation usually requires agarose gel electrophoresis and staining. In this article, we report on an alternative DNA stain, Nile Blue A, that may be used in the…