INTERVAL CARRIER-FREE ELECTROPHORESIS FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION PROTEIN-PURIFICATION

Interval free flow zone electrophoresis is a new mode of free flow zon e electrophoresis (FFZE), which facilitates purification of proteins a nd other molecular substances at very high resolution. It can be perfo rmed in the commercially available free flow electrophoresis (FFE) app aratus Octopus. The specimens are loaded and unloaded as usual with th e help of a thin buffer film flowing between the two glass plates of t he FFE. However, as long as electrical current is applied to a specime n, the medium flow is turned off and conditions of static column elect rophoresis are simulated within the FFE device. Thereby electrohydrody namic flow effects, which widen the sample bands migrating within the electric field, are eliminated while optimal heat removal from the thi n buffer film is still possible and a sophisticated technique of harve sting of fractions remains available. Thus interval FFZE offers a gent le preparative method for purification of many kinds of charged molecu lar species such as proteins or dyes at very high resolution.