The objective of this experiment was to examine the electrophoretic behavior of hemoglobin from a normal person and from a person who has the sickle cell trait. Sickle cell disease is an inherited autosomal recessive gene. If the person has the inherited gene for sickle cell disease (hemoglobin S) from only one parent, then they are heterozygous and carry the trait. When the gene for hemoglobin S is inherited from both parents, the individual is …showed first 75 words of 986 total…

…showed last 75 words of 986 total…a net negative charge and move toward the anode in an electrophoretic system at a speed proportional to the strength of their charge. The isoelectric point of normal hemoglobin A is 6.9 but the isoelectric point of certain hemoglobin variants differ depending on the hemoglobin type. As discussed before, valine residues replace the glutamic acid residues in the Beta-chains of hemoglobin S. Therefore, hemoglobin S has two fewer negative charges per hemoglobin molecule than hemoglobin A.