High-performance partition chromatography of peptides on a new cross-linked agarose.

A new cross-linked agarose in bead form (20-40 microns in diameter) has been used for partition chromatography in two-phase solvent systems to give columns exhibiting efficiencies of several thousand theoretical plates. The efficiency of this high-performance partition column (70-80 plates per cm) far exceeds that of the most commonly used soft gel Sephadex G-50 (10 plates per cm). The column is operated under moderate pressure (5 p.s.i.) and can be regenerated. The new procedure appears capable of separating a peptide of moderate size, such as beta-endorphin (31 residues), from the majority of possible single-deletion sequences.