Fast and Sensitive Coomassie Staining in Quantitative Proteomics

Proteins separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis can be visualized by in-gel detection using ­different staining methods. Ideally, the dye should bind non-covalently to the protein following a linear response curve. Since protein concentrations in biological systems may vary by six or more orders of magnitude (Corthals GL et al., Electrophoresis 21(6):1104–1115, 2000), the staining should allow for a detection of very low protein amounts. At the same time, saturation effects have to be avoided because they impede normalized quantification.