Protein Determination by SDS-PAGE

Abstract

SDS-PAGE is the abbreviated form of sodium-dodecyl sulphatepolyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. It is a commonly used gel electrophoresis for the qualitative estimation of proteins. It is based on the principle that treatment of protein with SDS, an anionic detergent, causes a constant negative charge throughout the protein surface. It also breaks the protein chain into smaller peptide chains. Hence, the separation of proteins is solely based on the size and shape of the fragments generated and is independent of the charge of the protein. This, combined with polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, allows for visualization of these fragments where the smaller fragments retain at the bottom of the gel. This method has been discussed in detail in this chapter.

Keywords: Electrophoresis, SDS-PAGE, Size based separation, Protein.

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