alternative to silver stain?

[Torsten Borchers]

Christopher B. Yohn (cyohn at scripps.edu) wrote:
: I'm looking for a technique to stain proteins after 2D IEF/SDS-PAGE. 
: Coomasie is not sensitive enough for my use.  I tried silver staining but
: the particular protein I'm most interested in seeing does not stain well
: with silver.  I've found in the past that silver is a bit more picky (than
: coomasie) about what proteins it will or will not stain.

: I've seen kits to copper stain protein gels (inverse stain, actually). 
: Are these less selective about which proteins they stain?  How does their
: sensitivity compare to coomasie and silver?  Has anyone used other
: alternatives which I could check out?  Any info/tips on copper staining or
: other sensitive protein stains would be appreciated.  TIA.

If you don´t mind to blot your 2D-gel try colloidal gold staining.
It is sensitive and gives good resolution.
For reference:Anal. Biochem. (1985) 145, 315-321
Regards
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Torsten Boerchers                            Phone: +49-251-980 2876 
Institute for Chemical and                     Fax: +49-251-980 2890
Biochemical Sensor Research (ICB) 
Mendelstr. 7                                                
D-48149 Muenster
Germany                              E-Mail: borcher at uni-muenster.de
--------------------------------------------------------------------