Tricine

Tricine is an organic derivative of tris and glycine used in buffer solutions. It is a zwitterionic amino acid with a useful buffering range of pH 7.4-8.8 and is one of Good's buffering agents; Good first prepared tricine to buffer chloropast reactions. A zwitterionic amino acid with a buffering range of pH 7.4-8.8. Due to a low negative charge and a high ionic strength, Tricine is very useful for electrophoretic separation of small molecular weight proteins in the range of 1 to 100 kDa. Tricine is a commonly used electrophoresis buffer and is also used in resuspension of cell pellets. It has a lower negative charge than glycine allowing it to migrate faster. In addition its high ionic strength causes more ion movement and less protein movement. This allows for low molecular weight proteins to be separated in lower percent acrylamide gels. Tricine has been documented in the separation of proteins in the range of 1 to 100 kDa by electrophoresis.[2] The tricine buffer at 25 mmol/L was found to be the most effective buffer among the ten tested for ATP assays using firefly luciferase.[3] Tricine has also been found to be an effective scavenger of hydroxyl radicals in a study of radiation-induced membrane damage. Buffer component for separation of low molecular weight peptides. A zwitterionic buffer useful in the pH range of 7.4-8.8. Has a pKa of 8.05 at 25°C