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AAT Bioquest

What are the commonly used discontinuous gel buffer systems?

Posted February 10, 2022


Answer

Commonly used discontinuous gel buffer systems include:

  • Tris-Glycine – Tris-Glycine buffer concentrate is widely used as a transfer buffer for gel electrophoresis and Western blotting. 
  • Zymogram – Zymogram gels are essentially Tris-Glycine gels that contain casein or gelatin. They are generally used to characterize and detect proteases that utilize gelatin as a substrate. 
  • Tris-Tricine – A modification of the Tris-Glycine gel system, Tris-Tricine is optimized for the separation of peptides and small proteins with a low molecular weight.
  • Tris-Acetate – Tris-Acetate gels facilitate the optimal separation proteins with a  high molecular weight during gel electrophoresis. The lower pH of Tris-Acetate gels increases the stability of these gels, which reduces protein modifications and produces sharper bands.
  • Bis-Tris – The almost-neutral pH of Bis-Tris gels offers enhanced stability, which minimizes protein degradation. These gels are preferred for applications such as mass spectrometry, sequencing, and posttranslational modifications, where high sensitivity is crucial.
Additional resources

Discontinuous native protein gel electrophoresis

PageTell™ Prestained 10 to 250 kDa Protein Ladder

Buffer Preparations and Recipes