Methods Based on Different Solubility Characteristics
Proteins can be separated by exploiting differences in their solubility in aqueous solutions. The solubility of a protein molecule is determined by its amino acid sequence because this determines its size, shape, hydrophobicity and electrical charge. Proteins can be selectively precipitated or solubilized by altering the pH, ionic strength, dielectric constant or temperature of a solution. These separation techniques are the most simple to use when large quantities of sample are involved, because they are relatively quick, inexpensive and are not particularly influenced by other food components. They are often used as the first step in any separation procedure because the majority of the contaminating materials can be easily removed.
Salting out
Proteins are precipitated from aqueous solutions when the salt concentration exceeds a critical level, which is known as salting-out, because all the water is "bound" to the salts, and is therefore not available to hydrate the proteins. Ammonium sulfate [(NH4)2SO4] is commonly used because it has a high water-solubility, although other neutral salts may also be used, e.g., NaCl or KCl. Generally a two-step procedure is used to maximize the separation efficiency. In the first step, the salt is added at a concentration just below that necessary to precipitate out the protein of interest. The solution is then centrifuged to remove any proteins that are less soluble than the protein of interest. The salt concentration is then increased to a point just above that required to cause precipitation of the protein. This precipitates out the protein of interest (which can be separated by centrifugation), but leaves more soluble proteins in solution. The main problem with this method is that large concentrations of salt contaminate the solution, which must be removed before the protein can be resolubilzed, e.g., by dialysis or ultrafiltration.