Electrophoresis of neurochordins, a family of high molecular weight neural tissue glycoproteins, on horizontal submerged agarose gels in the presence of dodecyl sulfate.

We have developed a procedure for the use of agarose gels to separate electrophoretically neurochordins, a family of high molecular weight neural tissue glycoproteins. This procedure is a modification of the method of horizontal submerged electrophoresis on agarose gels routinely applied for the separation of DNA restrictions. For protein analysis we prepared gels of higher agarose concentration (3%), and 0.1% of sodium dodecyl sulfate was present in the buffer used both for gel formation and as an electrode buffer. After electrophoresis agarose gels can be directly stained with Coomassie blue, or proteins can be transferred from the gel to nitrocellulose or nylon filters for immunostaining. The main advantage of the proposed method compared to the method of electrophoresis on large-pore, composite agarose/polyacrylamide gels is its simplicity. Other proteins of very high molecular weight can also be successfully separated by this technique.