A marine biologist investigated the diversity of symbiotic zooxanthellae in different coral colonies by comparing their photosynthetic pigment profiles. They used thin-layer chromatography (TLC) to separate the pigments extracted from a zooxanthellae sample.
The biologist was provided with the following materials:
Describe how the biologist could use these materials to separate the pigments in the extract.
When using mobile phase X, the biologist resolved five distinct pigment spots. When they repeated the procedure under identical conditions but using a different mobile phase, Y, they resolved six distinct pigment spots. Explain the difference between these two chromatograms.