A natural and readily available crowding agent: NMR studies of proteins in hen egg white.

ABSTRACT: In vitro studies of biological macromolecules are usually performed in dilute, buffered solutions containing one or just a few different biological macromolecules. Under these conditions, the interactions among molecules are diffusion limited. On the contrary, in living systems, macromolecules of a given type are surrounded by many others, at very high total concentrations. In the last few years, there has been an increasing effort to study biological macromolecules directly in natural crowded environments, as in intact bacterial cells or by mimicking natural crowding by adding proteins, polysaccharides, or even synthetic polymers. Here, we propose the use of hen egg white (HEW) as a simple natural medium, with all features of the media of crowded cells, that could be used by any researche

SUBMITTER: Martorell G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3110865 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature