Biological Experiment on Proteins Using Electrophoresis in Senior High School —Its practice I—

Abstract

In order to have senior high school students observe the process of the digestion of proteins on the molecular level, a laboratory experiment using SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) was previously developed and reported (Jpn. J. Biol. Educ. 38(3·4): 139-146). examine whether the experiment can really be performed in classes or not, the experiment has been repeated five times so far: four times in ”Biology II” (grade3) and once in ”Integrated Science” (grade2). In most cases, gel was already prepared by the teacher, and students mainly made the sample for SDS-PAGE and applied it on the sample slot of the gel. In the experiment of protein digestion, pepsin and milk were used respectively as the proteolytic enzyme and experimental materials. Moreover, the purpose of detecting various proteins, several kinds of food were mashed, adding SDS solution and analyzed by SDS-PAGE. From the electrophorogram shown as the result of the experiment, student were able to do all sorts of studies and seemed to have deepened the meaning of the control experiment.

Through five experiments, it was shown that electrophoresis, which is an indispensable method in molecular biology, could easily be understood and manipulated by students. Therefore, electrophoresis is found to be worth carrying out in biology lessons.