DOI 10.1016/j.xpro.2022.101210, PubMed 35265859, Enserink JM, Chymkowitch P (2022) The dye has a chemical formula C47H50N3NaO7S2 (Sodium salt) and a molar mass of 3 g/mol. Its an efficient method to identify the biological sex of the fingerprint as the female samples show higher absorbance than male samples. CBB wasnt discovered or produced there, nopea British company thought naming their product after the capital of the Ashanti empire they recently conquered would begoodbusiness strategy. CBB & silver stain are both all protein stains they stain all proteins (though sometimes not equally well). Excedr can help your lab get the technology and equipment it deserves. The Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250 is another form of disulfonated triphenylmethane compound. note: It takes a really, really long time for the CBB powder to dissolve, so let it stir for several hours on a magnetic stir plate and then filter through a coffee filter to remove any undissolved stuff, fixation: protein precipitates so is trapped in the gel matrix, when dye meets protein -> dye binds -> gets trapped because the proteins trapped. Speaking of weight, different proteins have different weights because they have different #s of amino acid letters. note: those side chains arent always positive, but we stain the gel in acidic conditions, where theyre more likely to be more here: http://bit.ly/30qzHH6. CBB has sulfuric acid groups that can benegative or neutral depending on pH. Coomassie Brilliant Blue was first described by scientist Volker Neuhoff and got its name from an African city, Kumasi, which was previously known by the name of Coomassie. But the really cool fluorescent stains only stain specifically-modified proteins like glycoproteins (which have sugar chains added) or phosphoproteins (which have phosphate groups added), https://doi.org/10.1586/14789450.1.4.381 https://sciwri.club/archives/3483 https://www.nationaldiagnostics.com/electrophoresis/article/staining-protein-gels-coomassie-blue, more on topics mentioned (& others)#365DaysOfScienceAll (with topics listed)http://bit.ly/2OllAB0, Your email address will not be published. The ability of Coomassie Brilliant Blue to form a complex with proteins enables its use in Bradford assay for fingerprint analysis. Thus, you can see the bands even without destaining. And if youre even nerdierlike I am, (embrace it!) The bumbling biochemists here to tell! Its a really simple recipe only 4 ingredients: water, acetic acid (AcOH), methanol (MeOH), & CBB but it takes a while to prepare more here: http://bit.ly/2QJNwLy. And months. It has a pinwheel-like chemical structure and is characterized as a triphenylmethane dye. The background noise should also be reduced to make the bands easier to visualize. We get the G-250-based quick stain we use most of thetimepre-made, but we make our own Classic R-250 stain. Another approach is procuring your desired equipment on lease, using Excedrs leasing solution. So how do you get enough to stain the protein? The advanced equipment ensures the productivity of your lab and the validation of produced data. But proteins are invisible to the naked eye, so we need some sort of dye in order to protein-spy. So your bands would look darker for bigger proteins than smaller proteins if you ran the same # of protein molecules of each. Remove SDS-PAGE gel from glass and rinse once in ddH2O in a suitable container with a lid. its relatively high sensitivity. Coomassie Brilliant Blue is a widely used protein staining technique. Under the conditions of the staining solution it has overallcharge (anionic), so it binds (reversibly) to-charged parts of proteins (basic amino acids like Arg, Lys, & His) through electrostatic interactions (opposites attracting). And those clumps really are dissolved(they dont come undone when you let the solution sit). SDS-PAGE (Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate PolyAcrylamide Gel Electrophoresis) is a technique we use to separate proteins in a mixture by size (well, length) using electricity to send the proteins through a gel mesh. When it finds protein treasure, it latches on. This leads to an overall treasure-hunting scheme of: As I alluded to, there are lots of different formulations including Classic Coomassie which has really eager treasure-hunters that can find tiny amounts of treasure but are also fools-gold-happy its super sensitive and eventually gives you nice crisp bands, but takes a lot of destaining to reveal them. CBB also binds to non-charged protein parts (especially the ring-y (aka aromatic) amino acids like Phe, Tyr, & Trp) generically through Van der waals interactions, whichinvolve shifting around of electrons when molecules get close together. And since the dyes blue it tells us where the protein is. These interactions are individually weak but they add up(theyre what allowgeckosto walk up walls!). In the presence of an acidic condition, the red coomassie dye converts to blue when it binds with the protein. The G in the name denotes the greenish tint of the dye. Excedrs leasing solution allows you to save your time on purchasing each piece of equipment, and money by preventing the requirement of upfront payments and covering the equipments repair and maintenance costs. With the right equipment, you can accelerate your R&D and achieve milestones faster! Figure: The structure of the Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250. Below are two lab applications that are routinely performed and involve the use of Coomassie Brilliant Blue stain along with other reagents that are required to prepare the staining solutions. Coomassie is actually a trademark name owned by a company that no longer even makes it & a town name (modern-day Kumasi, Ghana). Coomassie Brilliant Blue is a part of many experimental studies in labs, including treating spinal injuries. Unlike the common name a company decided to give a product, this is an example of a functional name it describes the chemical makeup in this case three (tri) phenylmethane groups phenyl is a type of resonance-stabilized ring (a ring or atoms that share electrons in a delocalized fashion that makes them good at absorbing light and thus making things look colored) and methyl is a -CH group. STAR Protoc, 3 (1), 101210 Its used to stain protein gels and in Bradford assay. Instead of flooding the gel with dye (like the classical method) you supply a steady, mild flow of CBB moleculesenough to quench the proteins thirst, but not so much that it can stick to the gel. But theyll keep snooping around even if theres no protein left to find because you have high concentrations of free dye inside and outside the gel. Terms of Service. 250 was originally a purity/strength indicator. The non-polar components of the dye bind to the hydrophobic pocket of the protein through van der Waals forces. Excedr allows labs of all sizes to outfit their labs with the right pieces of equipment. To prevent that wandering, you add an alcohol and/or acid to get them to clump and get stuck in place. Polyacrylamide (prepared by mixing acrylamide and bisacrylamide) gel electrophoresis is a technique to separate proteins based on their molecular weight for molecular biology experiments and protein analysis. You must also know that the name Coomassie is a registered trademark of Imperial Chemical Industries. The separated proteins can be detected by using either Coomassie Brilliant Blue, fluorescent, or silver staining methods. During the complex formation of Coomassie Brilliant Blue with the protein, the reaction that occurs includes the following steps: The best commercial coomassie dyes are the ones that have high sensitivity, superior reproducibility, and low background. The result? Our leasing program helps you to direct your focus to your experiments and invest the rest of your money in operating your lab and achieving quality results. There are 2 main forms of this triphenylmethane dye, R-250 & G-250. The G-250 form of the stain is used in the staining formulation with other reagents, such as ethanol (or methanol), phosphoric acid, and ammonium sulfate. The transfer of electrons to protein disrupts its native structure and exposes its hydrophobic pockets. video added 3/15/22. Alternative Colloidal Coomassie recipes are becoming more and more common because theyre faster & more eco-friendly these forms keep groups of treasure-hunters hanging out outside the gel and gradually send them in until all the treasures found and bound. Cell Cycle-Dependent Transcription: The Cyclin Dependent Kinase Cdk1 Is a Direct Regulator of Basal Transcription Machineries This is because in order to find tiny treasure you unleash a ton of treasure hunters that race in from the dye bath, where theres a high concentration of dye, to the pores of the gel where theres more room and hopefully protein! The ionic interaction and complex formation through the reaction allow the visualization of the protein bands separated in protein gel. After staining with the dye, you will observe blue bands with a blue background. CBBs protein-binding ability also makes ita goodwool dye because wools chock full of a protein called keratin. CBB is colorimetric the readout is color, so the results are literally right there tosee, no special equipment required (unless you count theeye, which is a pretty spectacular tool!) In this article, we will briefly cover a brief on types of Coomassie Brilliant Blue, their applications in lab assays, and industrial areas that extensively utilize the dye for a myriad of purposes. (though the protein will be stuck in place through chemical-induced clumping as well see). Figure: The structure of the Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250. We commonly talk about protein weights in terms of molecular weight (MW) and units of kiloDaltons (kDa). And the one we use most often is a dye called Coomassie Brilliant Blue (CBB), either in the classical way or in the form of faster colloidal stains (often advertised as some trademarked version of instant blue). Coomassie Brilliant Blue is available in three forms: cationic (red), neutral (green in color), and anionic (blue). You can think of the SDS-PAGE gels matrix as maze with protein treasure hidden throughout. One other highly sensitive technique to visualize proteins is silver staining. GEL ELECTROPHORESIS separate proteins by size by unfolding them, coating them in negatively-charged detergent (SDS) & using that negative charge to motivate them to travel through a polyacrylamide gel mesh towards a positive charge. That stains been on back-order for months. This is done by using a destaining solution, which takes approximately 10 minutes to overnight to remove excess stain and produce bands with clear background. However, acquiring each piece of such equipment might make you break your bank. If youre kinda nerdy,you might look it up. Webmaster for research pages: Trond Olav Berg. However, during the staining procedure, the gel matrix is also stained. The most commonly used dye for visualizing proteins in SDS-PAGE gels is Coomassie Brilliant Blue R250 (CBR-250) because of document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Coomassie Brilliant Blue SDS-PAGE staining, Troubleshooting recombinant protein expression. Coomassie Brilliant Blue is one of the widely used stains in protein estimation assays, such as the Bradford assay. CBB can also bind SDS (that detergent we used earlier to solubilize and negatively-charge the proteins) which can mess up results. The technique is preferable, simpler, and easier than the ninhydrin chemical assay, which requires an assay preparation and involves the use of a cascade of enzymes in the process. Dye-ing to know more about the dye itself? Coomassie Brilliant Blue G-250 (or colloidal coomassie blue) contains two methyl groups, which are absent in the R-250 version of the dye. The dye forms a complex with the basic amino acid residue of the proteins, including arginine, histidine, tyrosine, and lysine for their visualization. Therefore, to remove the background color, a destaining solution is applied to the gel for better visualization of blue protein bands on a clear background. An example is BSA (bovine serum albumin), which recruits twice as many treasure hunters per weight of protein than your average protein. No problem the free CBB population can constantly get replenished from colloidal stock rooms (you have a sort of equilibrium between free & colloidal). Oslo University Hospital is a part of Southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority. for preparing stained gels for long-term storage. R-250 ismoresensitive , but G-250 can be made into forms that producelowerbackground, withfaster protocols. Bioessays, 44 (7), e2200065 DOI 10.3390/ijms23031293, PubMed 35163213, Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Institute for Cancer ResearchThe Norwegian Radium Hospital, Montebello, N-0379 Oslo, NorwayTelephone +47 22 78 19 82 (Enserink), +47 22 78 12 69 (Dept. Consider leasing through Excedr to save your lab time and money. where theres not any protein, the dye still fills the pores of the gel, but its not trapped (it can flow in and out but at this point its flowing mainly in because the dye concentration ([dye]is higher in the stain than in the gel). Coomassie Brilliant Blue staining is an efficient, simple, quick, and affordable protein gel staining technique. Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250 was first used in 1963 by Fazekas de St. Groth and his colleagues to see proteins separated on a cellulose acetate sheet, after protein gel electrophoresis. This protocol was adapted from Peptide Mapping and Sequence Analysis of Gel-Resolved Proteins, Chapter 7, in, Zinc/Imidazole Procedure for Visualization of Proteins in Gels by Negative Staining, Variations of Staining Sodium Dodecyl SulfatePolyacrylamide Gels with Coomassie Brilliant Blue, Alert me when Updates/Comments are published. A colloid is a solution where instead of having individual molecules spread throughout, you have clumps of those molecules, but still evenly spread out like in a normal solution. After proteins are separated on the electrophoretic gels, they are stained using the staining solution containing Coomassie Brilliant Blue. Here, theres no directionality to movement of things, so the dye will move wherever the heck it wants!