Abstract
Staining of proteins separated on gels provides the basis for determination of the critical properties of these biopolymers, such as their molecular weight and/or charge. Detection of proteins on gels and blots require stains. These stains vary in sensitivity, ease of use, color, stability, versatility, and specificity. This review discusses different stains and applications with details on how to use the stains, and advantages and disadvantages of each stain. It also compiles some important points to be considered in imaging and evaluation. Commonly used colorimetric and fluorescent dyes for general protein staining, and stains that detect posttranslational modification-specific detection methods are also discussed.
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Acknowledgment
A small part of the salary support to Dr. Pazhani Sundaram was provided by an SBIR phase 2 grant R44 AG0 50336, from National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, USA. The author thanks NIH for the above grant award. Help rendered by Omkar Gandbhir, in preparing this manuscript is gratefully acknowledged.
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Sundaram, P. (2018). Protein Stains and Applications. In: Kurien, B., Scofield, R. (eds) Protein Gel Detection and Imaging. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1853. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8745-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8745-0_1
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