Protein purification problem

[gilbertjack at hotmail.com]

I am currently working on the most difficult project I have ever seen and have finally been forced to take the plunge and ask for outside assistance.

This protein is a novel type from bacteria. Size exclusion chromatography suggests it to be 35-45kDa. It does not stain by coomassie, silver stain or any traditional techniques on SDS-PAGE. However, it is stained by Stains-All, but this shows it to be stuck at the stacking/resolving gel interface. 

We have tested for amino-sugars and found none. 

Does anyone have any idea why a protein would not travel through a polyacrylamide gel at all?

If anyone has noticed anything like this before I would love to speak with you in more detail. 

Yours sincerely,

Jack Gilbert

http://biowww.net/mynews/tree.php?group_name=bionet_molbio_proteins&begin=0