SDS AGAROSE GELS FOR ANALYSIS OF PROTEINS

A new agarose-based protein electrophoresis gel system is described. T he system consists of a highly resolving agarose, MetaPhor (R) XR (FMC BioProducts, Rockland, ME, USA) dissolved in urea and TBE buffer and a stacking gel composed of a high gel-strength agarose, SeaKem (R) Gol d (FMC BioProducts). TBE containing sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) is us ed as electrophoresis buffer. The disadvantages of traditional agarose gels have been overcome, and several advantages over polyacrylamide g els have been demonstrated. The system is capable of high-resolution s eparation of small proteins and has a dynamic separation range equival ent to a 4%-20% gradient polyacrylamide gel. Furthermore, the staining of protein bands by Coomassie (R) Brilliant Blue is very uniform in t his gel, and depending on the protein, higher detection sensitivity ca n be obtained compared to SDS polyacrylamide gels. In Western blotting , proteins are more efficiently transferred to the membrane from the a garose gel than from polyacrylamide gels. Finally, the exceptional sta bility of agarose allows for gels to be precast and stored for a year.