Protein identification

Daniel MacArthur dmac125 at
Fri Apr 27 22:39:21 EST 2001

> What are the different techniques that are used to separate and 
> identify proteins?

There are a huge number of different techniques that can be used for
separating and identifying proteins. Here are a few examples:


* polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). This can separate proteins by
molecular weight if the proteins are linearised using something like sodium
dodecyl sulphate (SDS).

* isoelectric focusing (IEF). This separates proteins based on their pI (the
pH at which the protein has a net neutral charge).

* chromatography columns. Various types of chromatography columns can be
used to separate proteins based on size, pI, chemical properties, or
identity (using antibodies to specific proteins).


* antibodies. These can be raised to specific epitopes (short stretches of
amino acids) within a specific protein and later used to identify that
specific protein from a complex mixture.

* enzymatic properties. Certain enzymes can be identified based on the
conversion of specific substrates to specific products.

There are many more examples, but I hope this is a helpful start.



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