Determining Amino Acid Composition
It is often desirable to know the unordered amino acid composition of a protein prior to attempting to find the ordered sequence, as this knowledge can be used to facilitate the discovery of errors in the sequencing process or to distinguish between ambiguous results. Knowledge of the frequency of certain amino acids may also be used to choose which protease to use for digestion of the protein. A generalized method often referred to as amino acid analysis for determining amino acid frequency is as follows:
- Hydrolyse a known quantity of protein into its constituent amino acids.
- Separate the amino acids in some way.
Read more about this topic: Protein Sequencing
Famous quotes containing the words determining and/or composition:
“The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was poured a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my mid-day, there reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from without. It is the noise of my contemporaries.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)