NEW ZWITTERIONIC DETERGENTS IMPROVE THE ANALYSIS OF MEMBRANE-PROTEINSBY 2-DIMENSIONAL ELECTROPHORESIS

Severe quantitative loss of protein is often observed in high-resoluti on two-dimensional electrophoresis of membrane proteins, while the res olution is usually not affected. To improve the solubility of proteins in this technique, we tested denaturing cocktails containing various detergents and chaotropes. Best results were obtained with a denaturin g solution containing urea, thiourea, and zwitterionic detergents, syn thesized for this purpose. Among the dozen detergents synthesized and tested, amidosulfobetaines with an alkyl tail containing 14-16 carbons proved most efficient, solubilizing previously undetected membrane pr oteins.