Pierce Mass Spectrometry Compatible Silver Staining Kit is a complete kit for the analysis of polyacrylamide gels. Fast, ultra-sensitive silver staining of proteins and efficient destaining of gel blocks requiring mass spectrometry analysis. This kit enables both novice and experienced users to achieve consistent and reliable staining using high, low and gradient percentage gels in 1D and 2D formats. The optimized staining method ensures extremely sensitive staining while minimizing covalent cross-linking of proteins to the gel matrix, inhibiting protein recovery. Decolorizing reagents help to completely remove silver ions from stained protein bands and recover as much protein as possible for subsequent mass spectrometry analysis.

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Features:
•Sensitivity—detectable within 30 minutes of fixation Less than 0.25 ng of protein per spot
• MS Compatible—Reagents and protocols optimized for peptide extraction from stained 1D or 2D gels (SDS-PAGE), mass spectrometry performance excellence.
•Flexible staining protocols—Gels can be fixed for 15 to 30 minutes or overnight without any impact on staining performance; staining can be performed for 1 to 30 minutes (usually 2 to 3 minutes) .
•Compatibility—Efficient silver staining even of difficult-to-stain basic proteins such as lysozyme (pI 10) and chymotrypsinogen A (pI 9.2), which are available in Detected at 0.2 ng and 0.5 ng levels
•Complete kit—Includes all reagents needed for staining and destaining prior to gel proteolysis and peptide recovery for mass spectrometry analysis

Ordinary silver staining methods usually use glutaraldehyde or formaldehyde, but this can lead to covalent cross-linking of some proteins with each other and between the protein and the gel matrix. When this cross-linking occurs, it will be difficult to extract or elute the protein from the gel. Pierce silver stains use formaldehyde in the dye and developer working solutions. However, the kit's procedure for mass spectrometry analysis is optimized to maximize peptide recovery without significantly reducing sensitivity.