Differences in Protein Composition of Mammalian and
Reptilian Skin: Analysis through Gel Electrophoresis
Name: Amulya Penmetsa
Class: BE 210
The objective of this lab to analyze the differences between mammalian and reptilian skin samples, particularly the protein makeup of the skins, through the technique of gel electrophoresis. In this lab, chicken skin will be representative of mammalian skin, while reptilian properties will be studied with snake skin. The labexperiment will be similar to experiment one in that the same procedure and principles of electrophoresis will be tested. However, instead of muscles, the samples that are being tested are skins from two separate species, and this will result in completely different conclusions. It is hypothesized that the concentration of beta keratin in the reptilian skin samples will be much higher than in the mammalian samples. The ability of the experimenter to prove this hypothesis will rely on the properties of keratin (as a protein) to bind with the sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) during the process of gel electrophoresis. Once the gel has been run, Matlab techniques and image analysis will enable the experimenter to determine the concentrations of keratin and determine whether or not the hypothesis is correct.