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Biology

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Cell Biology

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Membrane Structure and Components

How Detergents Solubilize Membrane Proteins

Description

Detergents help solubilize membrane proteins so they can be purified from the lipid bilayer. Their hydrophobic region can replace membrane phospholipids and keep integral membrane proteins in solution.

A detergent works well only when its monomers reach the critical micelle concentration, or CMC....

Transcript

Detergents contain hydrophilic head groups and hydrophobic tails, which allow them to form spherical micelles; therefore, they are widely used to purify membrane proteins.

There are three types of detergents – ionic, non-ionic, and zwitterionic.

Ionic detergents such as sodium dodecyl sulfate have charged head groups, whereas non-i...

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