Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide gel electrophoresis

摘要

A discontinuous polyacrylamide and agarose gel electrophoresis system is provided which allows the fine separation of proteins based on molecular weight with the concomitant retention of native enzymatic activity. This system, referred to as the CAT gel, uses the cationic detergent CTAB, and includes a stacking gel based on a zwitterion such as arginine and a buffer such as tricine. The CAT gel system allows specific enzyme histochemical detection and localization of proteins after gel electrophoresis. This system stacked and separated a broad range of proteins into discrete bands which migrate as a linear function of log Mr. The effect of CTAB solubilization on the activity of several proteins is also shown. Proteins separated by CAT electrophoresis maintain high levels of native enzymatic activity, and may be detected histochemically in situ.