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    Incorrect Molecular Weights due to inaccurate Prestained Protein Molecular Weight Markers that are used for Gel Electrophoresis and Western Blotting
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    Abstract:
    ABSTRACT The most widely used Western blotting protein standards are prestained proteins of known molecular mass (kDa). They are also utilized for sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (PAGE) to determine the molecular mass of proteins separated by electrophoresis. The objective of this study was to assess the reliability of different commercially available protein standards in predicting accurate protein molecular weights. We performed this experiment by running Criterion TGX gels with five prestained protein standards (Thermo Fisher SeeBlue Plus 2, Bio-Rad Precision Plus Protein Dual-color, Thermo Fisher Spectra Multi-color, Novex-Sharp Pre-stained, and Invitrogen iBright Pre-Stained). To evaluate their accuracy, we utilized highly purified Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA, 66.44 kDa) and Cytochrome C (Cyto C, 11.62 kDa). We also made use of the dimers of BSA (132.88 kDa) and Cyt C (23.24 kDa) that are present on SDS-PAGE gels. Our results suggest that three of the standards were less accurate at higher molecular masses with the iBright marker having the highest error in determining the expected 132.88 kDa molecular weight. The SeeBlue Plus 2 was accurate at identifying the 132.88 kDa molecular weight protein band but was less reliable for the three other lower molecular weight proteins. These findings have significant implications for the determination of protein masses because researchers rely on these standards to evaluate the molecular masses of their protein(s). We suggest that at least two different protein standards should be initially used in electrophoresis gels and for Western blotting in order to get accurate protein molecular weight results.
    Keywords:
    Molecular mass
    Molecular-weight size marker
    Molecular-weight size marker
    Agarose
    Polyacrylamide
    Difference gel electrophoresis
    Citations (188)
    Polyacrylamide
    Color marker
    Molecular-weight size marker
    Buffer (optical fiber)
    Free-flow electrophoresis
    Apolipoproteins B100 and B48 in human and rat plasma were studied by using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis. On SDS gradient gel electrophoresis, human and rat apoprotein B100 co-migrated and had an apparent Mr=258,000±12,000. Human and rat apoprotein B48 had an apparent Mr=189,000±6,000. The molecular weight of human apoprotein B100 determined by sedimentation equilibrium analysis was 270,000±20,000, which was similar to the value determined by SDS gradient gel electrophoresis. However, on SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis at constant concentration, the relative migration value of human apoprotein B100 was not constant when the concentration of polyacrylamide was changed. These results indicate that SDS gradient gel electrophoresis is more suitable for the analysis of apolipoprotein B's than ordinary SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.
    Sodium dodecyl sulfate
    Molecular-weight size marker
    Polyacrylamide
    Substrate-sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) has become a popular procedure for the separation and identification of active fractions present in enzyme mixtures due to its relative simplicity. Procedures including high-molecular-mass substrates within the gel, such as starch for identification of amylase activity, and protein substrates, including gelatin, casein, and collagen, for revealing protease activity, have been described. SDS-PAGE separation under denaturing conditions is dependent on the molecular mass of the proteins and on the effective pore size of the gels, the last factor being affected by the inclusion of high-molecular-mass substrates into the polyacrylamide matrix. In order to quantify the effect of the addition of increasing concentrations of such substrates on protein migration, starch, gelatin, and casein were included in gels in which polyacrylamide concentration was kept constant. High-molecular-mass substrates decreased migration of proteins rangin&/sup;g from 6.5 to 205 kDa, although the migration pattern, and thereby the accuracy of the assignation of relative molecular masses to proteins separated on those gels, was practically unaffected. The substitution of glycine, as the carrying ion, by Tricine in denaturing electrophoresis buffer systems resulted in an improvement of the migration of proteins in substrate-containing gels. Results suggested that zymograms including substrates remain a valuable procedure for the separation and the relative molecular mass assignation of active enzyme fractions.
    Molecular mass
    Sodium dodecyl sulfate
    Polyacrylamide
    Gelatin
    Molecular-weight size marker
    Tricine