Summary
Several methods have been used for detecting proteins on membranes. These include the use of quantum dot luminescent labels, oxyblot immunochemical detection, polymer immunocomplexes, “coupled” probing approach, in situ renaturation of proteins for detecting enzyme activities in crude or purified preparations, immunochromatographic assay, western-phosphatase assay, and the use of Congo red dye, a cosmetic color named Alta, Pro-Q Emerald 488 dye, or amine-reactive dye in combination with alkaline phosphatase and horseradish peroxidase–antibody conjugates for the simultaneous trichromatic fluourescence detection of proteins. Several methods have been used to improve the detection of proteins on membranes, including glutaraldehyde treatment of nitrocellulose blots, elimination of keratin artifacts in immunoblots probed with polyclonal antibodies, and the washing of immunoblots with excessive water and manipulation of Tween-20 in wash buffer. These methods are briefly reviewed in this chapter.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Kurien, B.T., Hensley, K., Bachmann, M., and Scofield, R.H. (2006) Oxidatively modified autoantigens in autoimmune diseases. Free Radic Biol Med. 41, 549–556.
Castegna, A., Aksenov, M., Thongboonkerd, V., Klein, J.B., Pierce, W.M., Booze, R., et al (2002) Proteomic identification of oxidatively modified proteins in Alzheimer’s disease brain. II. Dihydropyrimidinase-related protein 2, alpha-enolase and heat shock cognate 71. J Neurochem. 82, 1524–1532.
Dean, R.T., Fu, S., Stocker, R., and Davies, M.J. (1997) Biochemistry and pathology of radical-mediated protein oxidation. Biochem J. 324, 1–18. Review.
Davies, K.J. (2001) Degradation of oxidized proteins by the 20S proteasome. Biochimie 83, 301–310. Review.
Stadtman, E.R. (1990) Metal ion-catalyzed oxidation of proteins: biochemical mechanism and biological consequences. Free Radic Biol Med. 9, 315–325. Review. Erratum in Free Radic Biol Med. 10, 249.
Aksenov, M., Aksenova, M., Butterfield, D.A., and Markesbery, W.R. (2000) Oxidative modification of creatine kinase BB in Alzheimer’s disease brain. J Neurochem. 74, 2520–2527.
Krajewski, S., Zapata, J.M., and Reed, J.C. (1996) Detection of multiple antigens on western blots. Anal Biochem. 236, 221–228.
Gingrich, J.C., Davis, D.R., and Nguyen, Q. (2000) Multiplex detection and quantitation of proteins on western blots using fluorescent probes. Biotechniques 29, 636–642.
Makrides, S.C., Gasbarro, C., and Bello, J.M. (2005) Bioconjugation of quantum dot luminescent probes for western blot analysis. Biotechniques 39, 501–506.
Bruchez, M., Jr, Moronne, M., Gin, P., Weiss, S., and Alivisatos, A.P. (1998) Semiconductor nanocrystals as fluorescent biological labels. Science 281, 2013–2016.
Wu, X., Liu, H., Liu, J., Haley, K.N., Treadway, J.A., Larson, J.P., et al (2003) Immunofluorescent labeling of cancer marker Her2 and other cellular targets with semiconductor quantum dots. Nat Biotechnol. 21, 41–46.
Dubertret, B., Skourides, P., Norris, D.J., Noireaux, V., Brivanlou, A.H., and Libchaber, A. (2002) In vivo imaging of quantum dots encapsulated in phospholipid micelles. Science 298, 1759–1762.
Martin, K., Hart, C., Liu, J., Leung, W.Y., and Patton, W.F. (2003) Simultaneous trichromatic fluorescence detection of proteins on western blots using an amine-reactive dye in combination with alkaline phosphatase- and horseradish peroxidase-antibody conjugates. Proteomics 3, 1215–1227.
Fukuda, T., Tani, Y., Kobayashi, T., Hirayama, Y., and Hino, O. (2000) A new western blotting method using polymer immunocomplexes: detection of Tsc1 and Tsc2 expression in various cultured cell lines. Anal Biochem. 285, 274–276.
Wu, M., Stockley, P.G., and Martin, W.J., II. (2002) An improved western blotting technique effectively reduces background. Electrophoresis 23, 2373–2376.
Morrisey, J.H. (1981) Silver stain for proteins in polyacrylamide gels: a modified procedure with enhanced uniform sensitivity. Anal Biochem. 117, 307–310.
Dunbar, B.S. (1987) Two Dimensional Electrophoresis Immunological Techniques, Plenum, New York, p. 74.
Ocha, D. (1983) Protein contaminants of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel. Anal Biochem. 135, 470–474.
Bérubé, B., Coutu, L., Lefièvre, L., Bégin. S., Dupont, H., et al (1994) The elimination of keratin artifacts in immunoblots probed with polyclonal antibodies. Anal Biochem 217, 331–333.
Sundaram, P. (1996) A simplified ‘coupled’ probing approach for the detection of proteins on dot and western blots. J Immunol Methods 195, 149–152.
Béguin, P. (1983) Detection of cellulase activity in polyacrylamide gels using Congo red-stained agar replicas. Anal Biochem. 131, 333–336.
Mehta, S. and Rajput, Y.S. (1998) A method for staining of proteins in nitrocellulose membrane and acrylamide gel using Congo red dye. Anal Biochem. 263, 248–251.
Pal, J.K., Godbole, D., and Sharma, K. (2004) Staining of proteins on SDS polyacrylamide gels and on nitrocellulose membranes by Alta, a colour used as a cosmetic. J Biochem Biophys Methods 61, 339–347.
Shackelford, D.A. and Zivin, J.A. (1993) Renaturation of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase activity after electrophoretic transfer from sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gels to membranes. Anal Biochem. 211, 131–138.
Hart, C., Schulenberg, B., Steinberg, T.H., Leung, W.Y., and Patton, W.F. (2003) Detection of glycoproteins in polyacrylamide gels and on electroblots using Pro-Q Emerald 488 dye, a fluorescent periodate Schiff-base stain. Electrophoresis 24, 588–598.
Steinberg, T.H., Pretty On Top, K., Berggren, K.N., Kemper, C., Jones, L., Diwu, Z., et al (2001) Rapid and simple single nanogram detection of glycoproteins in polyacrylamide gels and on electroblots. Proteomics 1, 841–855.
Paek, S.H., Lee, S.H., Cho, J.H., and Kim, Y.S. (2000) Development of rapid one-step immunochromatographic assay. Methods 22, 53–60.
Maya, R. and Oren, M. (2000) Unmasking of phosphorylation-sensitive epitopes on p53 and Mdm2 by a simple western-phosphatase procedure. Oncogene 19, 3213–3215.
Dominguez, D.C., Adams, H., and Hageman, J.H. (1999) Immunocytochemical localization of a calmodulinlike protein in Bacillus subtilis cells. J Bacteriol. 181, 4605–4610.
Liang, F.T., Granstrom, D.E., and Shi, Y.F. (1997) Concentrating protein samples for sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing using protein-blotting membranes. J Chromatogr A 764, 143–150.
Spinola, S.M. and Cannon, J.G. (1985) Different blocking agents cause variation in the immunologic detection of proteins transferred to nitrocellulose membranes. J Immunol Methods 81, 161–165.
Batteiger, B., Newhall, W.J., Newhall, V., and Jones, R.B. (1982) The use of Tween 20 as a blocking agent in the immunological detection of proteins transferred to nitrocellulose membranes. J Immunol Methods 55, 297–307.
Lin, W. and Kasamatsu, H. (1983) On the electrotransfer of polypeptides from gels to nitrocellulose membranes. Anal Biochem. 128, 302–311.
Hoffman, W.L., Jump, A.A., and Ruggles, A.O. (1994) Soaking nitrocellulose blots in acidic buffers improves the detection of bound antibodies without loss of biological activity. Anal Biochem 217, 153–155.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Kurien, B.T., Scofield, R.H. (2009). A Brief Review of Other Notable Protein Detection Methods on Blots. In: Kurien, B., Scofield, R. (eds) Protein Blotting and Detection. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 536. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-542-8_56
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59745-542-8_56
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-1-934115-73-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-542-8
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols