SNAP-25 PROTEIN ANALYSIS
Name: Benjamin Hsu
Class: BE 210
The objective of this experiment is to determine whether or not a relationship between the relative amounts of protein found in two different types of functional tissue can be established. More specifically, the purpose is to build off of findings in a previous experiment that showed that heavy chain myosin is present in different amounts in skeletal and cardiac tissue. In that experiment, it was reasoned that the difference in protein presence was due to the fact that the different muscles have different functions. While skeletal muscle cells must be able to sustain lengthier contractions and extended periods of force application, cardiac muscles must be able to produce power in quick bursts that are relatively short compared to what is required of skeletal muscles. Similarly, the brain serves as the functional center of vertebrates. It controls the majority of autonomous events (breathing, blinking, heart beating, digestion), as well as voluntary events (ie: movement). On the other hand, peripheral nerves serve mostly to transmit nerve signals from the brain to the targeted region of the body. Because of the higher demand on the brain’s function, it is logical to assume that more neurotransmission events (which involve SNAP-25) take place in the brain than in nerve cells. As a result, the hypothesis of this experiment is that brain cells will have a significantly greater presence of SNAP-25 than will nerve tissue. The tissues studied in this experiment will be rat brain (cerebellum) tissue and rat sciatic nerve tissue. As part of the experiment, students will learn how to isolate proteins from tissue samples through a series of stages: creating a protein digest from specific tissue samples, protein specific chromatography, and the use of SDS-PAGE.