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

Proteinase K is a serine protease, the presence of a catalytic triad characterizes serine proteases, the catalytic triad is a cluster of three amino acids that make the catalytic center and consists of serine, aspartic acid, and histidine amino acids, which can often vary but all of these enzymes have a nucleophile serine and the same catalytic mechanism. Proteinase K has a catalytic triad consisting of Ser 224, His 69, and Asp 39. The substrate recognition sites are made up of peptide chains, 99-104 and 132-136.

Detergents are amphipathic compounds with a nonpolar, hydrophobic tail and a polar, hydrophilic head group. Due to these structural features detergents tend to aggregate into structures called micelles at high enough concentration; arranging themselves with their hydrophobic tails pointed inwards and their hydrophilic heads pointed outwards. Detergents come in three types: ionic (cationic and anionic) and non-ionic. Non-ionic detergents aren’t generally used for gel electrophoresis due to their limited ability to break non-covalent interactions between protein residues and inability to impart a uniform charge onto the protein. Ionic detergents (typically anionic SDS) are used for gel electrophoresis as they are highly useful for protein solubilization, linearization and for establishing a uniform charge in preparation for gel electrophoresis.