Description

• General description: Tricine is the most frequently used electrophoresis buffer. It is also useful for the resuspension of cell pellets. Tricine functions as a trailing ion and aids the resolution of small proteins at lower acrylamide concentrations than in glycine-sodium dodecyl-sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) systems. It has a lower negative charge than glycine, which helps it migrate faster. Tricine has a high ionic strength that allows increased ion movement and less protein movement. This in turn leads to the separation of low molecular weight proteins in lower percent acrylamide gels.[1]
• Application: Tricine has been used: to prevent precipitation of salts during autoclaving of Emiliania huxleyi cultures[2]as a component of buffer A for the homogenization of samples like Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, and plants[3]as a component of fresh assay buffer to measure serum melatonin by radioimmunoassay[4]