Electrophoresis?

From what I have heard, electrophoresis is a method utilized to determine the DNA composition of an animal, with the goal to be able to determine population sources and perhaps genetic makeup of an animal.

I have a line of corns that I am not at all certain that they are pure corns. This could have a significant impact on my breeding plans one way or the other, so I would like to be able to POSITIVELY have these animals examined by someone competent in electrophoresis as well as the background to be able to make such a determination. Right now, I could easily weed out the entire line of them, but a few generations down the road, this might not be quite so easy to do.

Does anyone have any ideas about whom I could approach about doing this work for me?

Avian Biotech International of Tallahassee, FL can advise you of the problems involved.
Their phone #'s are 850-386-1145 or 800-514-9672 (Office) 850-386-1146 (Fax)
If you talk to a guy(he is actually more than "just a guy") named Arnie, you will get the straight poop & if he can't help, he will know who will.
This place also has really good DNA dianostic tools for diseases like Cryptosporidium.
Stephen Fowler
623-465-0458

Well, who knew??

I'll have to give them a call and talk over this stuff with them. Can't get any more convenient than that!

Thanks for your help!

So, what happened? I just had this same idea myself recently. And, I just thought of Avian Biotech as a possible lead for answers.

Electrophoresis uses polarity to stretch out strands of DNA ... different dyes can be added to give a picture of the markers..... The old method we used in a hospital lab for analyzing enzyme genes were done in a gel substrate..... Nowadays everything is calculated on a computer .

So to answer your 1st question......... Yes you could take and sample and print out a visual representation of it's DNA profile..... you could also perform a quantitative analysis, assigning values to each marker....

PROBLEM+++++ THere is no standards to compare this to..... Even if you compared it to profiles of other corn snakes, you would have no idea what it all means..

SOLUTION +++ A huge sample size of "said species" would have to be tested and compared to each other using lineage data, using relatives etc..... This kind of testing would be very costly(probably Millions to map a single species) if not more... Look at the Human Genome project