Dissolvable disulphide-polyacrylamide gels for the electrophoretic analysis of chromosomal proteins and for affino-electrophoresis of thiol-proteins

A discontinous gel system is described that is composed of the dissolvable, disulphide-containing acrylamide gel developed by Hansen and the acetic acid-urea gel as introduced by Panyim and Chalkley. A cleavable SDS gel is used for the identification and an initial separation of proteins according to molecular weight; it is then solubilized by tris-mercaptoethanol and layered on the acidic gel, where it functions as a stacking gel with a pronounced concentrating capacity. The final resolution obtained by this technique permits the identification of single protein species according to the degree of enzymatic modification (acetylation and phosphorylation). Side reactions of the disulphide gel matrix with thiol proteins are discussed and other possible application are considered.