Biology Forum › Molecular Biology › Imagination about electrophoresis
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- April 13, 2007 at 11:47 am #7420
Tae Jun, YoonParticipantI am undergraduate and I learned about electrophoresis recently. It was
interesting. So I tried to imagine the practical application of electrophoresis. I want other great ideas from you. Please give me a reply!! 😀
First, It can be used to distinguish prion protein and prion protein scrapie which can cause BSE. Nowadays, many countries think the beef from America can cause BSE. To prevent the disease, we should distinguish the meat. So I think it is useful to distinguish bad beef by electrophoresis.
Second, it can be applied to find out cancer. Different from many kinds
of cells, cancer has an enzyme called telomerase, which can restore the telomere : Well, of course other cells also have the telomerase : bortany cells, marrow cell and so on. But most cells in our body has no telomerase as far as I know…. So I think the electrophoresis can be a means for distinguish ordinary cells from cancer.
Third, it can be a means for bioinformatics and protemoics. Especially, many bioinstitutes demand database about protein or gene. So I think the electrophoresis can be applied to research……….Do you have other ideas or Could you tell me if there’s wrong idea in this writing?
- April 13, 2007 at 5:42 pm #71133kotoreruParticipantquote Tae Jun, Yoon:But most cells in our body has no telomerase as far as I know….
I’m not a molecular biologist, but I’m fairly sure that telomerase is quite ubiquitous in our cells – without it surely our cell divisions would soon reduce our chromosomes’ length unacceptably.
Am I wrong?
- April 13, 2007 at 8:53 pm #71136canalonParticipant
First, prp and prp* have the same amino acid sequence, so protein electrophoresis, which is often done in denturing conditions is not the best tool to detect the presence of prp* in beef. In fact antibodies are better suited since they are sensitive to conformation.
Second, there are plenty of cancer markers, the problem is usually not to determine if a cell is cancerous or not, it’s to locate cancerous cells before the cancer completely invade the body.
Third, well it is called proteomics. It relies on 2D gel electrophoresis and is a widely available technique. Interpretation of data, due to the fact that protein sequencing is still not easy is the tricky part. And electrophoresis of nucleic acids is well… even more common. I have the result of 600 PCR under my eyes in the form of a picture of a DNA electrophoresis and I am scoring them. Tedious, but the common work of many molecular biologists…
- April 14, 2007 at 9:45 am #71147Tae Jun, YoonParticipant
Thanks for catching up my mistakes!!
But one question, then what is the difference between PrP and PrP* in the structure?
- April 14, 2007 at 4:13 pm #71157canalonParticipant
I do not have aclue of the exact nature of structure differenec. Besides even if I knew, i do not think it would be easy to describe in word. I suggest you search internet (swissprot?) for structure of the 2 forms of the protein if you are really interested.
- April 15, 2007 at 1:16 am #71163laraParticipant
the prion proteins have changed conformation-more beta pleats than the alpha helices and the conformation of normal proteins are changed by these abnormal proteins.
- April 16, 2007 at 4:20 am #71186JammerzParticipant
Yes, the increased beta-pleat structure is the main structural difference between the two conformations like lara said.
- April 23, 2007 at 5:31 pm #71431mounirbioParticipant
hello how are u jaen tun
i am sanae and i am undergraduate in morocco
*u must make migration of sain and disease protein by electrophorisis, and after u show the the weight molecular of eache protien.
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