Electrophoresis is an extremely useful procedure when applied to analysis of nucleic acids as it can resolve molecules of different sizes with relative ease and accuracy. Large molecules migrate more slowly than small molecules in agarose and polyacrylamide gels. However, the fact that nucleic acids of the same length may exist in a variety of conformation can often complicate the interpretation of electrophoretic separations. For instance, when a single species of a bacterial plasmid is isolated from cells, the individual plasmids may exist in three forms (depending on the genotype of their host and conditions of isolation): superhelical/supercoiled (form 1), nicked/open circle (form 2), and linear (form 3). Form 1 is compact and very tightly coiled, with both DNA strands continuous. Form 2 exists as a loose circle because one of the two DNA strands has been broken, this releasing the supercoil. All three have the same mass, but each will migrate at a different rate through a gel. Based on your understanding of gel composition and DNA migration, predict the relative rates (slowest, intermediate, fastest) of migration of the various DNA structures mentioned above.