Erythrocyte Membranes Lab Report

These gels were both clear enough to distinguish different bands of proteins with good precision. The proteins identified are educated guesses and further experiments would be needed to prove that these are the correct membrane proteins.

Discussion

Both gels have resolved many clear bands that have been labeled with proteins that have approximately the same molecular weight. The 15% gels marker ladder was aligned using the strong globin results of the cytosol and lysis at 15kD. The 7.5% was aligned using the anion exchanger (band3) and the actin band at 100kD and 43kD respectively.

The standard membrane sample for the 15% gel contains less bands than the sample we obtained. The standard contains less globin and lipids but contains more defined bands near the top of the gel. The 7% gel contains less bands on the standard membrane, the bands it contains are the easily identified ones like band 3, Glycophorin and actin. The bands identified on our membrane sample Dermatin, GADPH and stomatin are guesses based on what is likely to be present or found in other research on erythrocyte membranes.

Anything that has a band in another of the samples which is also found in the membrane sample is contamination and has not been identified. The 15% Gel also has another contaminant below the band identified as stomatin, as this protein is found in every sample from plasma to membrane. The 7% gel only contains one obvious contaminant which is the same as that found on the 15% gel as its below