Cutting membrane after transfer - (Apr/02/2009 )
Hi Dudes,
Is it possible to cut a membrane after transfer, to incubate the different sections with different primary antibodies?
What is the best way of doing this without damaging the membrane?
Yes, sure.
I usually do this rather than stripping the membrane. Just stain with ponceau red to check how the lanes look and cut accordingly with a regular scissor.
In case I use an antibody the very first time I do not cut the membrane but try to see how specific it works by offering the complete membrane and not only the piece of expected molecular weight.
Our lap routinely slices blots horizontally using prestained markers and stain each separate blot with different primary antibodies. It works great and saves you from needing to strip/restain blots which is time consuming and sometimes too ineffective or too harsh. As long as you know your antibodies are specific, I don't see anything wrong with this. People who stain the whole blot only show a strip anyway for a publication figure.
Dr Teeth on Apr 2 2009, 06:10 AM said:
Many journals now ask for a full picture of the blot to be included in supplementary information, to make sure that the blot is as the authors said it is.
bob1 on Apr 2 2009, 07:53 PM said:
Dr Teeth on Apr 2 2009, 06:10 AM said:
Many journals now ask for a full picture of the blot to be included in supplementary information, to make sure that the blot is as the authors said it is.
If they ask for it, then run another experiment to obtain a whole blot or use one of your initial experiments as you still save money in the interim. As long as you are not using this procedure to hide anything, I don't see the problem. As I said, BEFORE using this technique, do a few experiments where you stain whole blots too ensure that your antibodies are specific. Besides, I've published numerous papers and JBC, Mol Pharm, Toxicol Sci, Cell, etc. have never asked for whole blot pictures.
Dr Teeth on Apr 3 2009, 07:56 AM said:
Many journals now ask for a full picture of the blot to be included in supplementary information, to make sure that the blot is as the authors said it is.
If they ask for it, then run another experiment to obtain a whole blot or use one of your initial experiments as you still save money in the interim. As long as you are not using this procedure to hide anything, I don't see the problem. As I said, BEFORE using this technique, do a few experiments where you stain whole blots too ensure that your antibodies are specific. Besides, I've published numerous papers and JBC, Mol Pharm, Toxicol Sci, Cell, etc. have never asked for whole blot pictures.