What is the purpose of treating a protein with 2-mercaptoethanol?
A) to hydrolyze the protein into its amino acids
B) to cleave the disulfide bonds
C) to derivatize any free sulfhydryl groups to prevent them from reforming disulfide bonds
D) to derivatize the N-terminal amino acid during the Edman degradation

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

2-mercaptoethanol is used to reduce disulfide bonds in proteins, breaking them into free sulfhydryl groups, which helps in denaturing the protein for further analysis.

What Is the Purpose of Treating a Protein with 2-Mercaptoethanol