by Butch Shadwell
Certain times of year you can see many small meteors falling to earth, streaking to the surface from somewhere out in space. There is a theory that in fact life on this planet may have been seeded through DNA from space. The first microbes would have been based on these biological codes and then more complicated organisms evolved as different genes were expressed.The thing about DNA is that most of it is not used in the life span of most organisms. Different genes only express themselves in the physiology of the organism when they are activated by chemicals in the vicinity. Your genome may include genes for a hairy body and arms that reach your knees, but these do not express themselves in most of us (rotten luck Fred).
Electrophoresis is a technology developed many years ago to sort protein molecules based on their mass. It involves straightening and coating each molecule with a negatively charged chemical, then placing the samples into a gel. Then an electric field is applied. The smaller molecules are more mobile in the viscous gel and so migrate more quickly toward the positive electrode. The result is that you get bands made up of molecules of the same mass at various distances from the starting point.
Your chemistry question today is: what does it mean if some of these molecules are isomers?
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The names of correct respondents may be mentioned in the solution column.
* We seemed to have gotten behind on the challenges and answers, so here is the last few. As of October, the September edition was the last one that Butch had sent out. Figure that one out:) - Webmaster.
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1 comment:
I was just testing your chemistry vocabulary in the last column. I suspect many of you found the question far too simple: “Your chemistry question today is: what does it mean if some of these molecules are isomers?”
Of course isomers are chemical compounds that have the same empirical formula but differ in bonding configuration. A few common isomers would be glucose, fructose, and galactose. These are all monosaccharides (simple sugars) whose empirical formula is C6H12O6, but in fact have different chemical properties including taste.
The result is that any given band in the electrophoresis gel may contain more than one chemical, as long as they all have the same mass. But I bet you already knew that.
- Butch
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