Different behavior of Ferguson plot between agarose and polyacrylamide gels.

In this study, we conducted Ferguson plot analyses using both agarose and polyacrylamide gels in native electrophoresis and SDS-PAGE. The results revealed intriguing differences in the behavior of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and other model proteins. Specifically, BSA exhibited Ferguson plot slopes that were dependent on the oligomer size in agarose native gel electrophoresis, while such size-dependent behavior was not observed in native-PAGE or SDS-PAGE. These findings suggest that Ferguson plot analysis is a suitable approach when using agarose gel under the electrophoretic conditions employed in this study. Furthermore, our investigation extended to model proteins with acidic isoelectric points and larger molecular weights, namely Ferritin and caseinolytic peptidase B (ClpB). Notably, these proteins displayed distinct Ferguson plot slopes when subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis. Intriguingly, when polyacrylamide gel was employed, ClpB exhibited multiple bands, each with its unique Ferguson plot slope, deviating from the expected behavior based on molecular size. This divergence in Ferguson plot characteristics between agarose and polyacrylamide gels points to an interesting and complex interplay between protein properties and gel electrophoresis conditions.

Ferguson plot analysis of multiple intermediate species of thermally unfolded bovine serum albumin.

Ferguson plot was used to characterize the multiple intermediate species of bovine serum albumin (BSA) upon thermal unfolding. Differential scanning calorimetry showed an irreversible melting of BSA in Tris-HCl and phosphate buffers with a mid-transition temperature, Tm, of ∼68 °C. Thermally unfolded BSA was analyzed by agarose native gel electrophoresis stained by Coomassie blue and SYPRO Orange staining as a function of pH or protein concentration. SYPRO Orange was used to stain unfolded proteins. BSA heated at 70 and 80 °C, i.e., above the Tm, formed multiple intermediate species, which depended on the pH between 7.0 and 8.0, protein concentration and which buffer was used. These intermediate species were analyzed by Ferguson plot, which showed that BSA heated at 60 °C had a similar size to the native BSA, indicating that they are either native or native-like state consistent with no SYPRO Orange staining. The intermediate species observed at higher temperatures with the mobility less than that of the native BSA showed a steeper Ferguson plot and were stained by SYPRO Orange, indicating that these species had a larger hydrodynamic size than the native BSA and were unfolded.

Capillary sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis of proteins: Introducing the three dimensional Ferguson method.

One of the most extensively utilized rapid characterization, release and stability testing methods of therapeutic proteins in the biopharmaceutical field today is capillary SDS gel electrophoresis using borate cross-linked high molecular weight dextran. In spite of its widespread use, however, the gel composition dependent separation characteristics of this very unique sieving matrix has not been investigated yet. Introduction of three dimensional (3D) Ferguson plots, based on simultaneous variation of the dextran (D) and borate (B) concentrations generating 16 different D/B ratio gels, allowed better understanding of the electromigration process of the SDS-protein complexes. As a result of this comprehensive study, non-linear 3D logarithmic mobility vs dextran and borate concentration surfaces were obtained. Both, the molecular weight protein standards and the new modality fusion protein etanercept resulted in concave 3D Ferguson plots. The interplay between the electroosmotic flow and the viscosity of the matrices played a key role in the resulting migration time and resolution. Selectivity values were defined and evaluated in 3D graph formats for the regular and de-N-glycosylated subunits of etanercept, as well as for the latter with the 10 kDa internal standard to understand both the dextran-borate complexation and sized based selectivities. KR plots of the retardation coefficients as the function of the logarithmic molecular weights were used to more precisely assess the Mw of the samples and to obtain information about the molecular characteristics of the electromigrating SDS-protein complexes.