Sample Preparation
***Effective June 28, 2013, the Keck Biotechnology Resource Laboratory will discontinue the following services: Amino Acid Analysis, Protein Sequencing (Edman Degradation), Large- and Small-Scale Peptide Synthesis. Small-Scale Peptide Synthesis is no longer accepting orders. Please contact us for the last dates for order or sample submission related to other services.
Ion-exchange separation and post-column ninhydrin derivatization of the amino acids allow samples to be submitted in a variety of solutions as well as polyacrylamide gel and PVDF bands. All hydrolyses are done in furnace-cleaned (pyrolyzed) 10x75 mm rimless Pyrex tubes. We will provide these tubes on request or transfer/aliquot samples into them that are received in other containers.
We ask for 3-10 µg of an "average" protein for each analysis, but can often get decent results with 0.5 µg or less. The limit of accurate quantitation for an individual amino acid varies from 50-200 pmole; peaks as small as 5 pmole can be detected for some amino acids.
In general, samples can be shipped without ice or dry ice (ambient temperature). Hydrolysis involves incubating the sample at 115°C in 6N HCl, so any degradation/cleavage during transport aids in digesting the protein to free amino acids.
Samples containing radioactive isotopes cannot be accepted.
