Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am doing an experiment where I will need to use pumpkin skin or pumpkin skin proteins to test against yeast. I was looking at the science experiment topic on Science Buddies called "Forensic Science: Building Your Own Tool for Identifying DNA." Instead of separating the DNA and RNA of food coloring dyes, I was wondering if there is a way to use the same homemade tool and method to extract protein from pumpkin skin, so i could use the extracted proteins on my yeast agar plate to test it against yeast in my experiment. Is it possible to extract the proteins from the pumpkin skin using the homemade gel electrophoresis chamber and using the extracted proteins on the yeast and agar, or would it be best if I just used the actual pumpkin skin on the agar plate? Here is the URL to the science topic: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... o&from=TSW. Thank you for your help.

Hi,

I would just use the pumpkin skin, and here's why: You don't know how fast the proteins will move on the gel and they will not be labeled with anything (in the experiment, the color is the 'label'), so you will not know where on the gel those proteins are. It's a good idea, though, and if you had a way to label the proteins it would be very interesting! Unfortunately, the colors in the pumpkin may move at a different rate than the proteins you are interested in. So, I would just use the actual pumpkin skin if I were you.