Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

so im doing my schools science fair and im a bit confused on how to really prepare the flowers to be tested in

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ifying-dna

the steps are a bit to confusing for me so i tryed adding just the flowered colored achool to the chamber when it was said to but the flower was purple and turned the whole buffer green i dont know what i did wring i think i didnt do the flower achool pigment right and i tryed looking it up online but i had no luck finding something that could help me in my experimnet so if you coud plz help me,and also thank you for your time .

Hi,
Are you referring to this part of the instruction from the "Make it Your Own" tab?

"Use your gel electrophoresis chamber to determine if two different types of plants use the same molecule for pigment. To prepare your samples, take the flowers from a plant, grind up the flower, add a little bit of isopropyl alcohol, and continue grinding. Once the solids settle, pour the pigment-tinted alcohol into a separate container. Let most of the alcohol evaporate and then add a drop or two of your buffer solution to reconstitute the pigment."

Can you help me understand which part are you on? It sounded like you are at the stage of letting most of the alcohol evaporate? I am not sure and just wanted to confirm. If this is the case, once the alcohol have evaporated, you can add a drop or two of the buffer solution to make the pigment. At this time, you can add the the pigments into the "well" similar to the food coloring dye.

Good Luck and please post again if you have any other questions.
Willey

That does help, but another question i have is am i adding the grinned up flower or the tinted alcohol?

Hi,
You are adding the pigment-tinted alcohol after all of the alcohol have evaporated. Once all of the alcohol have evaporated, you will need to add the buffer solution (a drop / two) back onto the pigment. This new pigment solution is then added to the well.

Good Luck!
Willey