Molecular Biology of Proteins (S2)

A common procedure used for determining the size of proteins in the research laboratory is polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, where denatured proteins are separated in the presence of the detergent sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). However, preparing polyacrylamide gels is laborious and requires a number of toxic chemicals. To avoid these limitations, we provide a special blend of nontoxic agarose that yields excellent resolution of SDS-treated proteins. In this innovative series, students use SDS-agarose gel electrophoresis to perform procedures including molecular weight determinations, peptide mapping analysis, detection of specific enzymes in crude cell extracts, affinity chromatography, and immunological studies using the Western blot procedure.

Individual Experiments.

Each of the individual experiments is supplied with the chemicals and laboratory guides needed for 16 students working in pairs. If you chose one or more of the experiments below, you should also order Electrophoresis Package 2M or Electrophoresis Package 2. Electrophoresis Package 2M provides sufficient agarose, gel stain, and electrophoresis buffers for 1 of the individual experiments in this series (four gels with 15ml of agarose per gel). Electrophoresis Package 2 provides sufficient agarose, gel stain, and electrophoresis buffers for up to 6 of the individual experiments in this series.