Improvement of the two-dimensional gel electrophoresis analysis for the proteome study of Halobacterium salinarum

Inherent problems exist in the use of two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) for sample preparation and separation of proteins from Halobacterium salinarum. In particular, proteins from cells grown in 25% NaCl are difficult to resolve by 2-DE due to the abundance of salt. To remove salts, a 3 kDa molecular weight cut-off column was used. When soluble proteins were separated by 2-DE, most of the proteins were concentrated in the acidic range. For separation of proteins in the pH 3-6 range, ultrazoom immobilized pH gradient strips were used. In addition, sample separation using a IPG-phor/Multiphor combined system was a more effective method for the proteome analysis of acidic proteins than using IPGphor for the isoelectric focusing step.