SDS-PAGE-resistant protein complexes

[Bernard Heymann]

In article <Mailstrom.1.03.12087.15089.agibson at acs.ucalgary.ca>,
agibson at ACS.UCALGARY.CA (Allan Gibson) wrote:

> Hi!  Has anyone on the net ever had experience with protein complexes that are
> not dissociated under normal SDS-PAGE conditions, i.e. brief boiling in SDS
> sample buffer containing 2% SDS and 5% 2-mercaptoethanol. If so, I'd appreciate
> very much hearing from you and finding what conditions, if any, might break such
> a complex into its components.  Thanks.   
> 
> Allan   

Hi

This is very interesting! Which complex are you working with? 

The one sure way of dealing with this is to run an urea-containing SDS-PAGE
gel, or to denature your protein in urea before adding sample buffer. The
urea itself usually does not affect migration in the gel significantly. A
useful reference is:
	     Ito et al. (1980) JBC 255, 2123.

-- 
Bernard Heymann
bheymann at bragg.bio.purdue.edu