Originally published In Press as doi:10.1074/mcp.M700076-MCP200 on April 9, 2007.
Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 6:1215-1225, 2007.
© 2007 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
Research
High Resolution Clear Native Electrophoresis for In-gel Functional Assays and Fluorescence Studies of Membrane Protein Complexes*
Ilka Wittig ,
Michael Karas and
Hermann Schägger ,¶
From the Zentrum der Biologischen Chemie, Molekulare Bioenergetik, Centre of Excellence "Macromolecular Complexes," Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, D-60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany and Institut für Pharmazeutische Chemie, Centre of Excellence "Macromolecular Complexes," Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Clear native electrophoresis and blue native electrophoresis are microscale techniques for the isolation of membrane protein complexes. The Coomassie Blue G-250 dye, used in blue native electrophoresis, interferes with in-gel fluorescence detection and in-gel catalytic activity assays. This problem can be overcome by omitting the dye in clear native electrophoresis. However, clear native electrophoresis suffers from enhanced protein aggregation and broadening of protein bands during electrophoresis and therefore has been used rarely. To preserve the advantages of both electrophoresis techniques we substituted Coomassie dye in the cathode buffer of blue native electrophoresis by non-colored mixtures of anionic and neutral detergents. Like Coomassie dye, these mixed micelles imposed a charge shift on the membrane proteins to enhance their anodic migration and improved membrane protein solubility during electrophoresis. This improved clear native electrophoresis offers a high resolution of membrane protein complexes comparable to that of blue native electrophoresis. We demonstrate the superiority of high resolution clear native electrophoresis for in-gel catalytic activity assays of mitochondrial complexes IV. We present the first in-gel histochemical staining protocol for respiratory complex III. Moreover we demonstrate the special advantages of high resolution clear native electrophoresis for in-gel detection of fluorescent labeled proteins labeled by reactive fluorescent dyes and tagged by fluorescent proteins. The advantages of high resolution clear native electrophoresis make this technique superior for functional proteomics analyses.
¶ To whom correspondence should be addressed: Zentrum der Biologischen Chemie, Molekulare Bioenergetik, Universität Frankfurt, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7 Haus 26, D-60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Tel.: 49-69-6301-6927; Fax: 49-69-6301-6970; E-mail: schagger{at}zbc.kgu.de

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Copyright © 2007 by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
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