Electrophoresis in Practice

The number of electrophoretic separation methods has increased dramatically since Tiselius' pioneer work for which he recieved the Nobel Prize. The development has led from aper, cellulose acetate membranes and starch gel electrophoresis to molecular sieve, disk, SDS and immunoelectrophoresis and finally to isoelectric focusing but also to high resolution two-dimensional electrophoresis. Together with silver and gold staining, autoradiography, fluorography and blotting, these techniques afford better resolution, sensitivity and specificity. In addition, gel electrophoresis has proved to be a unique method for DNA sequencing while high resolution two-dimensional electrophoresis has smoothed the path from the isolated protein to the gene through amino acid sequencing and after cloning, to protein synthesis. The spectrum of analytical possibilities has become more varied so that an overview of the electrophoretic separation methods seems desirable not only for beginners but also for experienced users. This book has been written for that purpose.