Fast method for two-dimensional electrophoresis of proteins from biological samples.

The method for two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of J. Klose and M. Feller [(1981) Electrophoresis 2, 12-24] has been simplified by reducing the thickness of the gels from 3.5 to 1.1 mm for isoelectric focusing gels and from 3.5 to 0.84 mm for sodium dodecyl sulfate slab gels. Thin gels need less reagents and smaller sample volumes. Cooling of the thin gels during electrophoresis is more effective, which allows the use of higher electric power. Therefore, less time is required for an electrophoretic run (approx 4 h). The resolution increases due to the smaller size of the spots. The time required for staining the gels is reduced from at least 3 days to about 1 h. The method has been tested with a protein sample from the filamentous fungus Fusarium solani.