Coomassie stain forzen and thawed gel? - (Aug/15/2012 )

Hi!
My question is the following. Is it possible to Coomassie stain a piece of SDS-PAGE gel that has been frozen and thawed? This is for MS analysis. It seems that now I need to visualize some bands in my gel, after I got them ready for MS analysis.

Thanks!!!

Theoretically yes. Coomassie stains the positive residues in a protein forming a stable complex due to the fact that it has some sulfonic acid groups. Moreover, this complex is quite stable, once formed. After freeze-thawing the protein is still intact on the gel, so I do not see why it wouldn't work. Just go for it, what do you have to lose?

Andreea