Question

Discuss how 6M (NH4)2SO4 affect the protein stability.

Answer 1

i hope you are concern about the prolonged effect of ammonium sulfate on the proteins.Ammonium sulfate is a non inactivating protein precipitant & stabilizer which work on principle of salting in & salting out (solubility).Several commercial protein compounds like enzymes are ammonium sulphate suspension .Both ammonium & sulphate belong to the Hofmeister series being the most stabilizing ions.

Although ammonium sulfate precipitation is currently a relaible procedure in terms of enzyme activity & protein structure recovery one cannot exclude that very high ammonium sulfate concentration could lead to full dehydration of some proteins having water in teir structure (eg collagen ) thus resulting in irreversible denaturation. as well irreversible aggregation might possibly occur at precipitation,irrespective to ammonium sulfate .