Question

I want to study the activity of membrane protein;
a) Which type of detergent should i use (ionic or non ionic) shall i used for isolation?
b)I want to determine the size of a membrane protein which type of detergent shall i used for the isolation?
(Can you explain me with details for me to understand it better)

Answer 1

Ans-1- ionic detergent like SDS are very efficient in membrane protein extraction but they denatured the protein due which protein's native structure get disturbed and protein becomes non-functional and no activity is observed. So if you want to study membrane protein activity you can't use ionic detergent. Always use non-ionic detergent it keeps proteins in its native state and protein remains active.

Ans-2- if you want to determine the size of protein its means if protein is inactive it doesn't matter. So you can use ionic detergent which denature the proteins but does not affect the size. Ionic detergent are very efficient in membrane protein extraction by solubilizing the membrane.