Detergent and MALDI - Detergent and MALDI (Jan/28/2004 )

Dear all,

I've recently had some protein samples (gel fragments cut from 1D SDS-PAGE from a GST pull down experiment) analyzed by MALDI-TOF and got back some frustrating results. All samples were contaminated with 'a' detergent of unknown origin. This reduces the specific peptide signature so no identification is possible. The people who do the MS analysis don't know where this detergent is coming from and say it could be 'left-overs' from cleaning the glass plates or any other material used. The only advice they can give me is to make all my buffers fresh, try again and hope for the best. Does anybody have a similar experience and what can you do about it?

Greetings,
Karl

you already got the best advice, risne your glass plates extensively to get rid of any detergents. also you can wash you gels with 50% methanol 10% acetic acid and then with 20% methanol and 10% acetic acid 2-3 times and then stain it with the stain