EFFECT OF OPERATIONAL VARIABLES ON THE SEPARATION OF PROTEINS BY CAPILLARY SODIUM DODECYL SULFATE-GEL ELECTROPHORESIS

Capillary sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-gel electrophoresis, for fast a nd high-resolution separations of protein molecules based on their mol ecular masses was investigated, employing a polymeric sieving network of polyethylene oxide (PEG). A standard mixture of five proteins rangi ng from 14.2-66.0 kDa in molecular mass was used to evaluate the sievi ng matrix. A general migration velocity equation was derived for capil lary SDS-gel electrophoresis of proteins and supported by the experime ntal data. This equation gives a better understanding of SDS-protein s eparations via capillary gel electrophoresis. Results are presented re garding the effects of different operational variables such as gel con centration, electric field strength, molecular mass, and temperature o n the electrophoretic migration properties of the different size prote in molecules.