Abstract
PEDERSEN1 made a thorough study, in the electrophoresis apparatus and the ultracentrifuge, of β-lactoglobulin (Palmer2). He found that it was a homogeneous protein of molecular weight 38,000 by sedimentation equilibrium and 41,500 by diffusion measurements3. Neurath and Cooper, from diffusion and viscosity measurements, quote values of 43,300 and 33,700, depending on the molecular shape. From the X-ray point of view, the limitation in the accuracy of determination of the molecular weight is the estimation of the water content of the air-dried crystal. Mc-Meekin and Warner4 derived a figure of 35,800 from their measurements of the mean water content and the crystallographic data of Crowfoot and Riley5. However, if their lowest value for the water content is used, the molecular weight is increased to 37,200. As the osmotic pressure of β-lactoglobulin solutions has not hitherto been recorded, I have now made some measurements of it.
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References
Pedersen, Biochem. J., 30, 961 (1936).
Palmer, J. Biol. Chem., 104, 359 (1934).
Svedberg and Pedersen, "The Ultracentrifuge" (Oxford Univ. Press, 1940).
McMeekin and Warner, J. Amer. Chem. Soc, 64, 2393 (1942).
Crowfoot and Riley, Nature, 141, 521 (1938).
Chibnall, Rees and Williams, Biochem. J., 37, 354 (1943).
Gutfreund, Nature, 153, 406 (1944).
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GUTFREUND, H. Molecular Weight of Palmer's β-Lacto-globulin. Nature 155, 237 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155237a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155237a0
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