Coomassie staining before electroblotting?

[trey]

Yes indeed you can do Western blots on Coomassie stained gels, but you
need to replace the SDS. We do this by placing the destained gel in
transfer buffer containing 2% SDS and microwaving until the solution
boils (about 1-2' for minigels in 100ml). Then blot and probe as usual.
This technique works well, although there is some loss of resolution
(bands get "fuzzy"), and sensitivity compared with unstained gels. Good
luck.

Trey Simmons
Lawrence Berkeley Lab
trey at csg.lbl.gov

Carol Chihara wrote:
> 
> Can/should an SDS protein gel be stained with coomassie before
> electroblotting onto nitrocellulose which will be followed by
> detection with antibodies and protein A?  I thought not, but am not
> sure why!