Artifactual staining of proteins on polyacrylamide gels by nitrobluetetrazolium chloride and phenazine methosulfate

Venugopal, Sri KS and Adiga, PR (1980) Artifactual staining of proteins on polyacrylamide gels by nitrobluetetrazolium chloride and phenazine methosulfate. In: Analytical Biochemistry, 101 (1). pp. 215-220.

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Abstract

Different purified proteins were shown to give purple formazan bands corresponding to the protein stain following electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gels, in the presence of nitrobluetetrazolium (NBT) and phenazine methosulfate (PMS). Both PMS and NBT are needed for formazan production which has a favorable pH at 8.5. Sulfhydryl blockers in the incubation medium inhibited this color development to different extents. While proteins with free SH groups like bovine serum albumin, ovalbumin, and urease showed this pyridine nucleotide independent artifact, nonthiol proteins, viz., bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A, and riboflavin-binding protein from chicken egg white failed to do so. The nonenzymatic formazan formation observed with different proteins could also be shown in an in vitro assay system. It is clear that the “nothing dehydrogenase” phenomenon observed in several cases may be due to the thiol group-mediated artifactual staining of proteins.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Analytical Biochemistry
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier Science.
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Biochemistry
Date Deposited:	27 Oct 2009 13:20
Last Modified:	01 Mar 2012 06:40
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/24756

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