The Protein Man's Blog | A Discussion of Protein Research

There are a number of staining methods that can be used to detect highly glycosylated proteins on SDS gels, even at very low levels (i.e. up to a few nanograms). Some of the most commonly used stains for this purpose include the Coomassie brilliant blue stain (for proteins with limited glycosylation) and silver stain (used in cases where high sensitivity is required).

Most people learn more by doing things rather than by just reading, watching or hearing about it. As such, providing hands-on learning can have a profound effect on learning in schools, particularly on science teaching.

While proteolytic enzymes such as proteases and phosphatases play an important role in living cells and help ensure the survival of the organism, the mechanisms that regulate the tightly controlled cellular environment is disrupted during cell lysis. When this happens, these enzymes may start cleaving a variety of proteins that they would otherwise not touch in intact cells. This situation often leads to reduced recovery of total protein and biologically meaningless representation of protein activities.

Proteases are enzymes that facilitate proteolysis, or the breakdown of protein and peptide molecules into smaller polypeptides and/or amino acids. These enzymes do their job by cleaving the peptide bonds linking the amino acids together in the polypeptide chains.