I am so NEW in protein work...I want to purify secretory protein from bacterial culture medium. So I centrifuge the culture and then filter the cell away. I cleaned up the protein using Bio-Rad Cleanup Kit. Then I used Bradford method and BSA as standard to quantify the protein. However, the OD is so low and I assumed that the concentration in the medium is too low or the cleanup process loss most protein!? So I concentrate the medium from 100ml to about 2ml using Amicon centrifugal filter device. This time I run the protein using Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer. There was no protein inside. But when I do the Bradford method, it shows 1-2mg/ml protein. I wonder that is the Bradford method give reading correspond to the protein in the medium? since I didn't clean up the protein this time.
also, I have following questions:
1. If I want to run IEF afterward, am I need to buffer exchange the protein? If yes, what buffer should I use?
2. Can I use H2O as the buffer for buffer exchange for IEF? I understand that it will not be stable for storage.
3. Is secretory protein easily be degraged? Is it common to have precautions to prevent protease etc?
4. Is the broth medium contain protein that will interfer the IEF result?
MANY MANY THANKS!!!!!